Category Archives: General

The Feynman Technique

The Feynman Technique is the best way to learn anything quickly. Devised by a Nobel Prize-winning physicist, it uses the power of teaching for better learning.

There are four steps to the Feynman Learning Technique:

  1. Pretend to teach a concept you want to learn about to a student in the sixth grade.
  2. Identify gaps in your explanation. Go back to the source material to better understand it.
  3. Organize and simplify.
  4. Transmit (optional).
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68 bits of unsolicited advice from a 68 year old co-founder of Wired

My favorite part is that Kevin teaches most readers a new word, with the last word on his list –– “Pronoia” is a neologism coined to describe a state of mind that is the opposite of paranoia..

Here are 3 of of my favs from his list:

1- Being enthusiastic is worth 25 IQ points.

2- Don’t be the best. Be the only.

3- Promptness is a sign of respect.

This list reminded me of the sunscreen song, which is also good.

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#ToMarsAndBack

In 2021 pieces of Mars will land safely on earth as part of Mars 2020. The Mars 2020 rover collects samples and leaves them in canisters on the surface. The lander deploys a fetch rover to collect the samples and deposit them in an ascent vehicle, which blasts into Mars orbit. There, a return orbiter collects the samples for transport back to Earth.

Via planetary.org.

Mars Sample Return overview infographic (ESA)

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In-depth– Spend analysis of 6 years 686 rides and $12,041 spent on Uber

What I learned from my Uber data

I save $703/month using Uber versus owning 2 cars (🚙🏎). I’ve spent $12,041 on 686 Ubers over 6 years. By comparison, car ownership cost $11,783 per year, most of it depreciation. What could $703/month buy you? Well, four years of $703/month and you’ll save enough to climb Mount Everest 🏔 unguided. Or you could buy a shiny new laptop every 3 months. More details below. Continue reading “In-depth– Spend analysis of 6 years 686 rides and $12,041 spent on Uber”

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Today I taught kindergarten

Today I taught 22 kindergartners about the thawing arctic. These children are mostly 6-years-old. Symbolically, the route that ArcticRow rowed was frozen until 6 years ago. A clear example of global warming. These kindergartners just completed a lesson on the Arctic.

My companies’ non-profit arm, the VMware Foundation, provided lunch bags to demonstrate the lesson of reuse+recycle. When you’re six years old, lunch bags double as hats.

Jasmine Sheldon (teacher at left above) and I improvised activities on the thawing Arctic.

  • We used inflatable globes to visualize the arctic ocean
  • We drew an outline of the 30-foot Arctic Rowboat in chalk on the ground
  • We sat in the chalk-shaped rowboat and mimicked rowing faster to escape polar bears and dodge ice bergs
  • We asked them to use reusable lunch bags instead of single-use bags–a tangible action

Here are pictures to give a sense for my experience.

“We rowed an ocean that was frozen 6 years ago.”
 

“The Arctic Ocean is here.”

 

“What Arctic animals will be hurt if the ice melts?”

 

Here, Ella Zimman helps me hand-out VMware Foundation re-usable lunch bags. Her father recruited me into VMware.

 “Our rowboat was shaped like this.”

“What does rowing look like?”

 

“If the ice melts, where will the seals go?”

A shout-out to the people at The VMware Foundation (Nicola, Jesse and Betsy). They are super nice, support VMware employees that volunteer in the community and they donated the reusable VMware Foundation lunch bags. Thank you!

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