Better Humans

Yes, Tim is so good. He also wrote a great Medium article for one of our publications there. Here the link that'll bypass the paywall: https://medium.com/better-humans/how-to-use-psychology-to-solve-the-pr…

How to make your iphone a light phone: 1. Make it black and white. https://medium.com/better-humans/how-to-make-your-iphone-black-and-whi… 1b. If you're like me, and you like colors when looking at pics people send you, set up your phone to toggle to full-color mode when you triple-tap. https://support.apple.com/guide/iphone/accessibility-shortcuts-iph3e2e… 2. Delete the apps that aren't "basic functionality", then break your app store and browser. https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201304 Step 2 involves setting up a passcode. I recommend getting a friend to enter this passcode, then hide it away from you, since you obviously can't trust your junkie brain. I did this and it is RAD. I still use a subset of communication-oriented social media, but my phone is kind of boring now, in a good way.

I'm working on an app that may help you. I wrote a bit about my experience here: https://medium.com/better-humans/50c835e15244 Exercise is definitely going to help and to avoid the difficulty in scheduling it, schedule 5-10 minute high intensity workout as soon as you wake up. You'll be surprised how much that helps. I'd love to help out. I've lost over 20 lbs just doing 5-10 minutes every day and have kept it off, but my primary focus was just feeling more energetic and overcoming all the stress that one spirals into with such schedules. Feel free to follow me on twitter (same username), and I'll DM you my email (don't like to publicly post my email) :/

> Right. No one has ever studied contagions among the community at large and the effect of masks. When you hear people say there is no evidence, this is what they are referring. Actually, they have[1,2]. According to one study, surgical masks helped cut down the community spread of SARS in Beijing by 70%[3]: > Always wearing a mask when going out was associated with a 70% reduction in risk compared with never wearing a mask. But if you're specifically referring to randomised trials on mask efficacy during an on-going pandemic, you're right that there are no such studies -- because it would be unethical. So effectively all of the relevant studies are retrospective (which does introduce recall bias), but these are basically the best studies we can do ethically. [1]: https://medium.com/better-humans/whats-the-evidence-on-face-masks-5f3c… [2]: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6993921/ [3]: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3322931/

Nice, and open source. Bravo and congratulations. Such a nice step beyond bookmarking webpages. I have created https://idorecall.com/ a web app (soon to work in mobile browsers too). Unlike Polar, you upload your learning files (Word, PPT, PDFs and image files as well as videos on Youtube) into iDoRecall and read them there. If you see a concept that you comprehend or a fact that you want to remember, create a spaced-repetition flashcard (we call our RECALLS) linked to that fact/concept. Then when you practice your RECALLS, if you forget an answer, click a link and the original source file/video opens at the exact linked location where you created the RECALL. Refresh your memory and quickly get back to your practice session. I wrote a few weeks ago about my life experience that led me to create iDoRecall: https://medium.com/better-humans/how-to-unlock-the-amazing-power-of-yo…

It’s a nice engineering approach, but I’m interested in the motivation. Um and ah is distracting in a transcript, where you can naturally pause to take in information; in speech however it can serve as a focusing point to indicate the next part is important. See https://medium.com/better-humans/dont-worry-about-saying-um-effective-… for example. The weirdly obsessive zeal that orgs like Toastmasters have about eliminating them is weird. Disfluencies aren’t necessarily bad even if the word starts with “dis”!

A bit an older post with more data on the topic: https://medium.com/better-humans/measuring-blood-sugar-as-a-non-diabet… TL;DR: As a healthy, non-diabetic adult I wore a Continuous Glucose Monitor (CGM) to measure my blood sugar for two weeks The sensor was convenient to use and painless to apply, and was barely noticeable during the two weeks it was on my arm. In analyzing my blood sugar levels, I learned a lot about my body’s response to different foods and exercise; I could identify some foods that spike my glucose. Two weeks is too short to make detailed improvements to my nutrition in order to stabilise glucose levels — further monitor and experimentation will be needed.

I feel that most people would benefit from knowing more about how to get a good night's sleep, but have a hard time figuring out what to do exactly. So this thread helps but also something like this article about sleep hacking is very helpful: https://medium.com/better-humans/what-i-learned-from-six-months-of-obs… I recently experimented with bed linen made by bamboo, but did not experience any big effect. Bamboo is supposed to regulate the temperature at night, but didn't seem able to on warm summer nights.

Medium paid you $800 for this one? https://medium.com/better-humans/how-to-set-up-your-windows-10-pc-to-m…

Yes. Lots of studies linked in https://medium.com/better-humans/whats-the-evidence-on-face-masks-5f3c… Turns out stopping droplets helps slow the spread of a virus that spreads via droplets. Shocker, I know.

this is also a very good article: https://medium.com/better-humans/how-to-set-up-your-iphone-for-product…

Reading replies like yours I started to wonder about a more systematic approach to journaling in the context of mood, therapy, depression, etc. Quick google search lead to this [1] article, I haven't read it yet, though. I also remember reading about particular journaling techniques to battle certain mental conditions. [1] https://medium.com/better-humans/cognitive-journaling-a-systematic-met…

Minimalist Journalling [1] for a more visual journalling experience [1]: https://medium.com/better-humans/draft-how-to-hack-your-brain-to-achie…

You might be talking about the "Spark File" https://medium.com/better-humans/8d6e7df7ae58

I think he already answered his own question in another post. Declares he's already awesome because he lives in NY & has an Amex. https://medium.com/better-humans/fb2e4d6aea5f

I started keeping a journal a few months ago and it helped me to keep it simple, quick and as painless and fun as possible. I've been heavily inspired by technique called minimalist journaling [1] which is something I read about somewhere (maybe even here on HN). As you're probably a problem solver at heart (since you're on HN during Christmas), it might also help to write a list of things that you want the journaling to do for you (self-reflection? better mental health? loving-kindness? keeping track of memories?) and then try to come up with some system that will optimize for those values and also minimize the stress and time-commitment. Your brain is programmed to stir away from any stressful work, you the last two are mainly to make sure you aren't biologically forced out of your new habit. [1]: https://medium.com/better-humans/draft-how-to-hack-your-brain-to-achie…

Kejia Zhu (http://kzhu.net/does-life-end-at-35.html) helped me to get through the delusional obsession for quick success. I gave it to read to all my friends and it's definitely a must for all HN folks. The good ol' Raymond's How to Become a Hacker (http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/hacker-howto.html) will teach you the Hacker attitude, which you can apply to anything. It doesn't matter whether you're a programmer or not, either way you'll benefit from it. "1. The world is full of fascinating problems waiting to be solved. 2. No problem should ever have to be solved twice. 3. Boredom and drudgery are evil. 4. Freedom is good. 5. Attitude is no substitute for competence." A Handyman’s Toolbox (http://ninjasandrobots.com/a-handymans-toolbox) taught me not to always chase the hot new tech and be confident in my skills. It may be common sense, but it's also well written and straight to the point. Lastly, the following posts are all about traveling and/or alternative lifestyles. They show different POVs, but are all equally inspirational. - http://alexwarren.co.uk/2013/06/27/how-i-live-and-how-i-work/ - http://jake-jorgovan.com/blog/remote - https://medium.com/better-humans/6620882dde89 - http://blog.alexmaccaw.com/how-to-travel-around-the-world-for-a-year/