Comments on: 1 ≫ 0: One Is Better Than None

By: Why America Doesn’t Win Wars Any More and What (Ironically) That Can Teach You About Learning Languages | AJATT | All Japanese All The Time

Sun, 18 Aug 2019 12:38:14 +0000

[…] will choke on something that big; you will get sucked into a personal quagmire. No. Pick one shelf. One. 8 Fight there. Clean there. Win there. Then, with decisive victory secured, move on again. Rinse, […]

By: When Are You Going to Stop Trying to Score Only Three-Pointers, Start Making Friends with Mediocrity and Start Realizing That Excellence Comes From the Rejection of Perfection? | AJATT | All Japanese All The Time

Tue, 12 Feb 2019 18:38:38 +0000

[…] 1 ≫ 0: One Is Better Than None […]

By: How Is Learning a Language Like Breathing? | AJATT | All Japanese All The Time

Thu, 26 Jun 2014 07:37:07 +0000

[…] 1 ≫ 0: One Is Better Than None […]

By: Stop Trying To Do Things Well: Getting Over Zero | AJATT | All Japanese All The Time

Thu, 29 Aug 2013 19:07:10 +0000

[…] 1 ≫ 0: One Is Better Than None […]

By: Start Dirty: Why A Clean Slate Is Bad For You and What To Do About It | AJATT | All Japanese All The Time

Mon, 15 Jul 2013 18:37:19 +0000

[…] it’s just transformation. Nature likes to grow and build gradually and by accretion. 0 and emptiness may sit well in math and physics, but not in […]

By: It Counts If You Let It | AJATT | All Japanese All The Time

It Counts If You Let It | AJATT | All Japanese All The Time — Fri, 14 Jun 2013 02:07:08 +0000

[…] Inside your own mind, be like a guy talking to other guys about his exploits with the ladies. If you made eye contact, you spat game at her. If you brushed hands, you made out. If you made out, you did it. If you did it, you did it 10 times…That’s a sucky example. But you get it, right? After all, how much dirt does it take to make a white shirt dirty? Not much, right? You can have a 99.9% surfac… […]

By: Failing Gracefully | AJATT | All Japanese All The Time

Failing Gracefully | AJATT | All Japanese All The Time — Tue, 05 Feb 2013 02:40:46 +0000

[…] than crash, try failing gracefully. If you can’t do 100%, your next option is not 0%. There is (literally, mathematically) an infinite number of numbers, and therefore options, between 0… […]

By: How To Use This Website | AJATT | All Japanese All The Time

How To Use This Website | AJATT | All Japanese All The Time — Wed, 28 Nov 2012 01:44:57 +0000

[…] Find something useful — 1 thing will do […]

By: Language Is Peeing: The Approximately Top Ten Reasons Why Language Acquisition = Micturition | AJATT | All Japanese All The Time

Sun, 06 May 2012 00:32:03 +0000

[…] you’re not going to pee at all if you don’t drink. Nothing begets nothing. 0 begets 0. No drink, no pee. Drinking = input. Peeing = output. There is no output without […]

By: Kanjiboy

Kanjiboy — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 18:19:52 +0000

This post kinda goes against the “10,000 hours” one you did. I gues the 10,000 hours of listeing are for people who are “serious” about Japanese, where else this is more about people who usually complain they dont have no time and people who are scared to put a foot forawrd at a time. As for me, I am studying at fast but steady rate. I am a;ready much better than probably anyone in my college who studies Japanese. Butg I listen to All Japanese and novles at least 20 hours a day, while leraning 64 new kanji a month and 16 new grammer points and 10 new particles a month. And I am not tired or wear, in fact. The more I study, the mre I love Japanese.

By: Ken Seeroi

Ken Seeroi — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 10:37:19 +0000

You know, before I started studying Japanese all the time, I used to be quite a runner. And the only problem with being a runner is that you become a better runner. Like at first, running a mile is hard. Then running two miles is hard. But if you keep at it, pretty soon you’re clocking six miles a day. And then more. That’s just the way it is. You get good at things. What a mess.
Who wants to be good at stuff? Being talented takes up all your time! Pretty soon you’re knocking out 90 minute workouts. And while that’s cool, it also feels pretty daunting. I remember so many early mornings when I was like, Jeez, it’s raining, do I really have to go out for an hour and a half? And I did then what I do now in Japanese. I let myself off the hook. I said, Okay fine, I’ll only go out for 20 minutes. Just a quick jog. Mentally, that’s waaay easier to deal with. And invariably, once I ran 20 minutes, I’d feel pretty good and just keep going. It’s the same thing now. The hardest thing is just doing something small, getting out the door. Once you do that, you’ve got momentum, and it’s a lot easier to continue.

By: Magdalena

Magdalena — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 12:06:39 +0000

You are right. Common sense knowledge should be constantly reminded. I think this will be my motto from now on: “One is better then zero”. Your post immediatly got me doing things. Thank you!

By: 魔法少女☆かなたん

魔法少女☆かなたん — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 18:45:48 +0000

If you can, get some Japanese books (children’s books are awesome) or manga that you can read whenever you’re not “wired”.

It does seem like an impossible journey even as you go along, when it seems like there’s so much you don’t know. Only when you step back and look at your results (“oh wow, I understand the gist of the plot to this drama without subtitles”, etc.) does it become apparent that you’re getting anywhere.

By: Rou

Rou — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 17:25:34 +0000

Allow me to go slightly off-topic here…

I recently had to stop doing well… about anything in Japanese, due to my computer breaking down (funny how much depends on a machine, huh?). According to Anki, the break has been 1.2 months. Wow. Maybe I haven’t done that much learning beforehand (just RTK and about 350 words in Core2k), but I got rather used to at least doing Anki reps every day and during that time without a computer I really felt… bad, without being able to study.

I’d say it’s a success – I got addicted to Japanese! But still, whenever I think of this language I feel like I’m standing at the bottom of Mount Everest with a guidebook in hand but no equipment or training. In other words, I have theoretical knowledge of what I should do to climb the mountain (learn the language), but I feel completely lost when trying to apply that to real life.

Okay, maybe that’s not the best metaphor, but you get what I mean. Nevertheless, AJATT and similar sites give me hope that someday, I will succeed and my dream of being able to speak and understand Japanese will come true.

By: Pikrass

Pikrass — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 20:08:30 +0000

You confused real numbers and integers, right ? If you think of 1 and 0 as integers, they sit next to each other. But in a real number line there’s an infinity of numbers between them, hence 1 is infinitely bigger than 0. 🙂
Maths agree with you Khatz !

By: Agent J

Agent J — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 17:15:25 +0000

Same… never thought of it this way either. At first I thought this post was going to be repetitive (from past content) and a bit disappointing but it turns out this evaluation of the discrepancy between actual numbers and “zero” is one of the coolest things I’ve ever read. It just makes so much sense. Saved.

(and it’s a decent length. we’re watching you Khatz; don’t you skim on us)

By: ハゲロス

ハゲロス — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 14:11:48 +0000

Awesome post, your blogs great. it kept me studying through the summer. One question though, how does 1 output to 0 unless 0 is a string. 😀

By: One is Better Than None | allnihongo.com

One is Better Than None | allnihongo.com — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 13:31:19 +0000

[…] is Better Than None January 30, 2012By torabisuI just read this awesome post at AJATT. It basically discusses the idea of doing one of anything versus doing none of […]

By: トラビス

トラビス — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 13:13:09 +0000

Wow, I never thought of it that way. Great post!

By: 魔法少女☆かなたん

魔法少女☆かなたん — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 19:48:08 +0000

This post came dangerously close to sounding like Nike’s advertising. xD