I started writing a few weeks ago, and since that day, I’m forcing myself to post about every week. It has been going ok so far (the only issue being that sometimes, I’m in a bit of a rush, so I write terrible articles; well, one could say that they are terrible every time, so I don’t know).

The reason why I started maintaining this blog is pure imitation.

Some of the people that I admire most are writing; thus I should do it too.

It’s also a kind of open love-letter.

A kind of love-letter??⌗

The reason that I named this blog anteprescience is because prescience is a word related to one person I admire; in a way, I’m documenting things I did before reaching prescience. But admitting to admiring someone who is not really a big person is a bit weird. I mean, I could openly admit admiring e.g. Nelson Mandela, but there are many people who do. But let’s say that you admire a colleague…

I think that’s a bit weirder.

So in a way, I’m always going to share this blog who people I can trust to not publicly shame me; or who are not connected to the guy.

How can I reach prescience?⌗

To achieve any goal, there are two main areas to master:

  1. Knowing what to do (strategy)

  2. Doing it fast and well (execution)

An introduction to strategy⌗

In the past, I was blind to strategy: my feelings were my only guide. Should I really hop on to the next shiny new project idea?

Once you have opened the Pandora box, it’s hard to get back because strategy boils down to common sense.

What do you truly want? How can you obtain it in the easiest way possible? How risky is it compared to other ideas? Is what I am doing truly the best option for my long-term goals? What did you do in your week; is it matching your goals?

SaaS (Strategy-as-a-Service)⌗

I have found a combination of Beeminder and Complice to provide me a good framework for goal-setting and reviewing. It forces me to do weekly/monthly/quarterly/yearly retrospects as well as planning my days ahead.

Executing your way to success⌗

Knowing what to do is useless if you cannot check-off tasks from your TODO-list.

ADHD or not: optimize your brains⌗

I have many times ended up in periods of my life where I couldn’t get a single thing done, even with the best incentives. Rewards don’t work that much, and punishments make me do the task, but at the cost of making it harder to execute the next time.

This started happening to me when I was around 15, and gotten gradually worse until I dropped out of school at 18. I have been diagnosed with Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD/ADHD) that I should be able to get rid of with Methylphenidate.

I’ve always thought ADHD was some kind of TikTok trend, but here we go…

The point is that if you have low motivation, your soul might not be the cause. It can have a pretty simple explanation which lies in a neurological problem, which can be resolved by having a good hygiene and using medications.

Here are some somehow-physical interventions that you can use to make it easier to gather attention:

  • good sleep (<7 hours, and you will get permanent damage, or so my neighbor told me)
    • supplements
      • melatonin
      • zinc
      • magnesium
    • tracking
      • a good smartwatch will make your life way easier
      • you can use a Beeminder goal to force yourself to sleep enough time
      • analyzing sleep phases will allow you to optimize your sleep in the long term by discovering disturbing factors
        • neuro-stimulants
          • Modafinil
          • nicotine
          • coffee
          • methylphenidate
          • amphetamines
        • BDNF (brain-derived neurotrophic factor) stimulants
          • psychedelics
          • Semax
  • basic exercise
    • 8-10k steps/day
      • boosts creativity a lot (useful in our case!)
    • enough cardio (reduces pain)

Having a good sleep hygiene and exercising is at least 50% of the work that you need to increase your execution throughput.

Your time, your choice⌗

Another frequent problem which affects execution speed is that in a day, plenty of time gets wasted in useless or harmful behaviors.

Mine are the following

  • addictive behaviors
    • watching anime
    • scrolling on Instagram/Reddit
    • chatting on Discord
    • reading news
  • over-engineering
    • over-complicating technological features
    • answering emails I could delete instead
    • pursuing projects that I don’t really need to accomplish
  • not knowing what to do next
  • agreeing to meeting with people when I don’t genuinely want to
    • and sometimes, depending on the goal, it’s even better to put a bit of distance and appearing a bit cold… Without entering manipulative schemes, of course.

Addictive behaviors can be removed with hygiene, meds and careful stimulants.

Not knowing what to do next can be fixed with careful planning.

Over-engineering can be fixed with retrospection: looking each week how I spent my time. Could I have done things faster?

Some concrete ideas⌗

Here are some concrete ideas that I could use to push me towards my Prescienceness goal:

  • building a newsletter to publish my project ideas and get them rated by people I trust
    • this way, I could easily build feedback from experienced peers
  • creating a Beeminder goal to read those scientific papers that I need to read
  • leaving my job and starting another one to gain more XP
  • gathering and evaluating business ideas every week using a thorough process
  • finding out the disciplines that I need to reach my goals and forcing myself to write about them as a way to acquire the 80% that I need
    • marketing
    • investing
    • networking
  • creating a weekly “what’s new in <my specific field of expertise>” newsletter to grow my reputation and keep myself and others in the loop