According to the links you gave:

Dumb and Dumber

Here comes the hotstepper

I haven't even heard of the song or the movie lol. Now I will give them a watch/listen.

Dark room. How dark though to get the effect?

Do you like reading Pando(a lot of your posts have origins there)? What sort of journalism is it exactly (from your perspective) and why do you find it exciting? What can one learn from it and why would one invest in it?

Oh boy those are a lot of questions, I am sorry about that.. I am just interested in your reading habits.

Try pickling green mangoes, they come out great!

I don't know if those are the three most recent

Which browser do you use? I think the latest bookmarks usually settle at the bottom. But any three would do.

Looks like you are very much into geography! Super interesting!

drawn to chess partly because smart people are supposed to play chess

Interesting to note. Does this stem from a belief to be a part of the "smart" community. I very many times have insecurities of being smart or not so I bury myself in topics (like pop psychology) to get the social gratification of being "smart". It's just that I want to be more like the people I consider "smart".

I am not saying that the above applies to you, i am just curious whether the thinking is similar as to why we get attracted to "smart" communities and our desires to be in them. (Hey, STEM circle-jerks are fun)

What other topics do you consider to be "smart" topics? For me neuroscience and programming comes into mind.

you'd come across as a "salesman" and we don't want that, do we?!

Does "Salesman" have a negative connotation here in America? If so why?

Isn't it a reputable profession? Just curious :)

I live in Bangalore which is in south of India.

India is EXTREMELY diverse! Every 100km radius you have a different culture, different food and sometimes even a different dressing style. It is a very ancient civilisation. Hinduism, one of the major philosophies in India, dates BC's back.

Thus it has had years and years of change and diversity has settled in just like diversity in a rainforest with time and age.

Octopuses are not aliens

Heck, in my university official record I am marked as an "alien".

The newsletter is great! First time a shoutout! Wohoo! Anyways i really like how it is structured and organised. Love you hubski! :*

I live in a dorm, I cheat-

I just microwave knorr kitchen sides. (Sobs slightly)

10 mins my meal is done.

Seems like I am the only one who's most amazing person isn't on hubski.

Here goes then: It's my mum-always asking if I am hungry or not.

Sounds sweet! Will check it out soon.

I surely will!

I'm from India actually. (Let the judgments begin, lol just kidding)

That's so Interesting!! Thanks so much for your valuable insight.

I am reading:

Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman

Was recommended by a lot of people, finally borrowed it from somebody who had it and now digging through it.

I feel powerful when I daydream. I have this condition called Maladaptive Daydreaming Disorder (I don't consider it a disorder). This makes me dream very vividly. In those dreams (many times narcissistic) I feel super powerful. It makes me feel confident, gives me a dopamine rush and inspires me to take on the world.

It's my secret drug for power.

This will be great for kids to play and learn coding at the same time. Looks really good. Might give it a shot someday

Then you are not interested in what you are trying to do. You really don't want to solve that problem.

So get interested. Internet is your best friend here. Reason out WHY do I need to do this? And convince yourself why.

If you are not convinced that this problem is important to you, you are never gonna do it.

I really liked 5 and 6. Especially the optical illusion part. OOoooh exciting!

All right hard work is a not-so-clear concept for most of us. I mean "hard work"? Am I supposed to do some blue collar stuff? What does it mean?

Let's break it down. Let's break down what we feel during our journey into "hard-work".

Stage 1:

What happens when you attack a challenging problem. You think, you re-think, slowly it drives you out of your comfort zone and now it starts to pain. Your body recognizes you are in pain and tries to put you off it. (Oh I don't wanna do it, so boooring. Oh wait the answer key would be here somewhere. Let me check my friends' code). But our brain is curious too. And if the problem is interesting enough to you you will persevere. You will look at it from different angles and you keep at it, until you reach stage 2

Stage 2:

Now you have tried a lot of possibilities and yet you are unable to wrap your head around it, you start to get agitated and irritated. "WTF man! Why why???" You'll start getting super frustrated. If your grandmom was looking at you now she would tell you to stop and take a break. But that problem is still crucial and interesting to you. Wise men would tell you to break the problem in super tiny chunks and go over the above process again, draw things out, start explaining your solution to yourself etc. etc. You start questioning everything you ever did trying to find a root cause. And when there is none in sight, anger seeps in and you start banging things (Fuck this shit, why is there a seg fault in a cout statement AAAAAHHHHH). After all the banging, hatred and blaming is over you move onto stage 3

Stage 3:

This is a very depressing stage, you are sad, you have tried everything and you have become emotionally very vulnerable. Even small things hurt you. You start thinking you are dumb and useless and probably all this is not meant for you. You become sadder and sadder due to helplessness. That is why it is not recommended that you traverse this stage alone. Make sure you have someone working with you on this. This is also the time most people take a break (take a nap best thing possible). But if you keep at it or come back and do it or you ask someone for desperate help you move onto stage 4

Stage 4:

You finally solve your problem and the deeper the stage you were in the more happiness you feel (and also the most exp you gain). This surge of dopamine is what makes you go through the whole process again. Take up another interesting problem and dig at it again.

You NEEED to go through this process multiple times and love it! Go through it and you will start appreciating hard work. Start looking forward to frustration and the above signs. This will tell you that you are getting closer to solve it, turn it into a game. Ohh I am in stage 3, shit if I solve it I would get butt loads of EXP.

SO to summarize(or TL;DR):

1.Find a interesting problem and (it should mean more than just that grade on your report card, else you will quit in the early stages)

2. Be conscious of frustration and start to love it. (If you are not getting frustrated you are not learning- I use this as my mantra)

3. Keep practicing and experiencing going through it again and again. (Hey, hard work is an acquired taste)

So the reason why we seek out the so-called "hipster" things is because we inherently want to be different from everybody else. It is a way of screaming to the world, "HEY GUYS!! LOOK I AM UNIQUE!!" It is just us trying to make a place in this universe, just elbowing our way in an already crowded place, trying to stand out among the masses.

Plus I am not a big fan of crowded places, yes even on the internet.

On "almost" a daily basis now. I was a big fan of quora, and spent quite some time there. I liked this niche community, where more importance is given on generating content. (Also it's kinda hipster, lol). How much time, well that depends. If I am in the mood for a #goodlongread then I spend a good hour or so, else I just browse through random posts, add random comments. I am still easing my way into writing regularly and probably use it to just vent out my thoughts, ideas and feelings over the internet. I think Hubski will soon be a part in that expression.

Only time will tell!

Pluto was adequately named so

It doesn't matter which language, any form of programming taught to kids is going to be beneficial. It is not the coding part which is important but it is THE WAY a programmer thinks which is. Inculcating such thinking will make the next generation better thinkers and better problem solvers. I am fully supportive of teaching coding to kids and making it part of the curriculum in schools.

Computers have now become ubiquitous, better get used to them ASAP.

Thank you so much!

If you want to learn and get an intro to quantum physics I would recommend you:How to teach Quantum Physics to your dog by Chad Orzel

He even has his blog

String theory well there might be better books but I have only read this

For higher level math, read this answer on quora: https://www.quora.com/If-you-had-to-teach-yourself-math-from-basic-algebra-to-high-level-mathematics-what-would-be-your-strategy?srid=pbEj&share=1

Learn electric engineering and robotics by doing projects, you can find ALOT of them online. Just start searching and start doing. No better way of learning than doing

Good luck!

Hmm, how good are you at math? (As in can you solve diff equations with not much difficulty?)