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PSA: to the extent that you think i am cool, i 0% did it this way https://t.co/aPlffbNSFQ
taxonomy of ways i became a cooler or better person: - luck - following my instincts - doing weird shit in irregular spurts i am way too much still the kid who coasted through school on raw intelligence to do things using routine and habit, and i have tried (and failed)
shoutout to @visakanv for consistently defending this kind of approach to life. can't find exactly the right tweet to quote but this one works: https://t.co/rnSarOJSoo
kids in my DMs with ADHD symptoms are always surprised when I tell them that I don't think they should try to suppress their mind's wild swings. My advice is to develop the practice of taking meticulous notes instead. It worked for many prolific individuals throughout history
@visakanv i forgot to mention laziness as a key trait of mine, although arguably it goes under "following my instincts." my 7th grade math teacher once told me that my laziness was my most useful quality as a mathematician and she was 100% right
i was too lazy to solve any problem the hard way so i kept looking for easier and easier ways. that consistently led me to better and better abstractions. why fill out a sheet of quadratic equations when you can rederive the quadratic formula? etc.