This entry is part 10 of 11 in the series Secrets to Smoother SRSingIn arithmetic, whenever we have an expression, we don’t just go left-to-right, and we don’t just run our calculations all willy-nilly. There is what is called the standard order of operations. These are the rules of engagement, the sine qua non, what…
Advice On How To Take Advice (Including Mine)
by khatzumoto
“Listen to all, plucking a feather from every passing goose, but, follow no one absolutely.” Chinese Proverb So, I read, watch and listen to a lot of what might very generally be called “advice”. A lot of advice-givers, myself included, can seem to be telling you: “What you’ve been doing SUCKS! You’re messing up! Do…
AJATT Twitter Tweets for Week Of 2010-02-27
by khatzumoto
Often things that are individually unamazing are absolutely incredible when aggregated. And vice versa. Just make contact. # Lower your short-term expectations to "just above zero/slightly more than nothing", but let your long-term expectations run wild. # It is precisely because you suck at Japanese that you need to come into more contact with it.…
Losing Your Way in a Language, and Finding It Again: Identity, Means and Ends
by khatzumoto
You remember the original Tortoises and Hares post, right? Well, I got this really insightful email about it from a virulently handsome man named Chris Espinoza, and I want to share it with you here; I’ve highlighted some of the uber amazing parts for your reading convenience: I have made a breakthrough in my thinking…
AJATT Twitter Tweets for Week Of 2010-02-20
by khatzumoto
If you wait to resolve all objections before you move forward, you'll never move forward. Not really language-related, but… # Some people are destructively critical because that's literally all they can do right now. Pity them: they're having a hard time. # Most successful bloggers aren't exactly Great Writers. But they actually produce. In that…
Tortoises and Hares
by khatzumoto
Remember the fable of the tortoise and the hare? Well, that fable is bollocks. You see, they got the personalities backwards. In real life, human “tortoises” are laid-back, nonchalant, happy. Meanwhile, human “hares” are destructively disciplinarian, destructively obsessive, and destructively obsessed with quick results. What happens is that the hares self-flagellate to the point of…