As many of you know, when I taught college undergraduates, I came to the realization that the semester seemed much shorter to me than to my students. My own undergraduate institution still sends me their calendar. It shows the first semester as 11 full weeks not counting the final exam week -- at best 33 class days. Aside from each week costing approximately $4090/student, that's not much time. However to the students, December looks safely off in the outer distance. The current 2025 calendar pictures hi jinks on the quad in shorts and t-shirts in September, and three flips later, December features hi jinks on the quad in hats and gloves with giant snow sculptures.

If I can't get to it today, I can do it tomorrow. If I don't get to it tomorrow, I can do it next week. If I don't get to it next week, I can do it next month.

Three weeks.

If three weeks go by, and you haven't gotten to something for which you have an intention, the probability that it will happen in the next three weeks shrinks to very unlikely. All those things that showed up every day during the last three weeks to push this thing to the next day and next week, are showing up in the upcoming three-week period.

Notoriously depressed to the point of being known as 'the weeping philosopher" Heraclitus 2500 years ago observed that all existence was in constant flux, the foundational element was fire - destroyer and transformer, and gave us the concept that we never step twice in the same river -- the water you stepped in yesterday is gone. Nothing stays.

Plan like a poker player

The world is full of uncertainty. In poker, there are a small number of combinations that will beat what's called a full house --three of a kind plus a pair -- but if you're holding a full house, particularly if the three is of the highest value cards: aces and the pair is above average -- say eights -- you're the likely winner with little risk to you. Wild Bill Hickok was holding the winning hand in a poker game with a lower value, but still respectably advantaged hand of two aces and two eights. While he was holding the highest value set of cards for that round, a higher-level chance arrived. Hitchcock was shot in the back and killed by a rival who had entered the saloon behind him. Predictable randomness.

Grandpa Ross taught all his grandchildren to play poker and shoot craps. He didn't survive the Great Depression and WWII to leave his grandchildren to grow up to be fools. My sister, Judy and our cousins Jimmie, Debbie, and Joey; and sometimes other playmates, didn't just play the games, but bet on individual hands in poker and individual rolls in craps as a way of keeping score over sessions of play. We played for pennies, so there was no wealth accumulation incentive. These are games in which one person wins and everyone else loses in the individual rounds, but over time, wins and losses often accumulate to different sets of winners and losers.

Games require losers. Games require at least one winner. Games can make losers better at the thing the game does, and sometimes that turns a loser into a winner, and can turn winners into losers if they don't keep up with the getting better. Over time, everyone in the game can get better without having any impact on the ratio of winners and losers. Paradoxically, being good enough to win can lower the incentive to get better. Jonathan Edwards, who has held the world's record for the triple jump since 1995, is ambivalent that no one has done better than he has for 30 years. Athletes are winning contests -- winning Olympic gold medals -- without needing to improve on his performance.

"Nothing we see or hear is perfect. But right there in the imperfection is perfect reality." (Shunryu Suzuki, 1904-1971)

Many of you know, Plus Ultra was the motto of my high school. In English, it can be translated as "Over the top." It's kinda ridiculous because in Latin, ultra means, well, ultra, there's nothing beyond ultra. It's analogous to saying, Be more unique. No. You're either one of a kind or you're not.

Force Direction: Essential and Symbolic Observer

A cymbal is a thing that does a thing. A symbol is a thing that represents an idea.

Cymbals make sounds. Ideas make music.

23.17 seconds

Reading is the most efficient way for me to consume content. As I've noted many times, among the seven forces, I have the shortest force-duration for reading. At the same time, we know the difference between a power lifter and a marathon runner. Power lifters are high force; short duration. Marathon runners titrate their force over a long duration. My Reader force is high for a short duration.

I just set a stopwatch timer. When I write something like this, I'm activating my Associative process. My Associative process activates when I'm trying to generate fresh thinking. The context is to bring something fresh to you, gentle reader. You have a curiosity and an interest in ideas that will enter your Associative process. Once there, best outcome is these ideas are seeds for your own fresh thinking. Most of these don't offer you a formula. That is, first do this, then do that, and so forth until you've arrived at a defined outcome.