Category: Learning

Counterintuitive Confirmation: How To Eliminate Your Doubts

Nik

This Wednesday, I realized all my current blog post ideas would take more than a day to complete. Between The 4 Minute Folio launch, AniQuote suddenly materializing from the massive mist of ideas in my head and a new side gig I’ve taken up two weeks ago, it’s a week as busy as ever.

Hence, I decided to give myself the following constraints for this post:

  • Less than 1,000 words.
  • No more than 4 Pomodoros total.

Artificially limiting yourself is liberating. Busy weeks come with a lot of learnings, so these rules forced me to go narrow and think really hard:

What’s the biggest lesson from the past 7 days?

Read More

The One Thing Nobody Tells You About Growing Up

Nik

When you were 1 year old, you thought trying to touch everything you could get your tiny hands on was a good idea. Whatever would happen next, it sure would be amazing.

When you were 2 years old, you first learned to speak. You used that ability to be brutally honest. When you wanted mom, you said “Maaa!” and when you wanted dad you said “Dada!”

When you were 3 years old, you yelled in the grocery store that you wanted the cereal in the red box. And you didn’t give a damn what anyone walking by thought about it.

When you were 4 years old, you built the best Lego or Barbie house in the world. You were your own biggest fan, and you meant it.

Read More
Alan Turing: The Man Who Changed History Twice in a Single Moment Cover

Alan Turing: The Man Who Changed History Twice in a Single Moment

Nik

The first time I heard Alan Turing’s name was in a computer science class where we studied different kinds of basic machines and how they work. One of them was called a Turing machine. Alan invented it.

In modern academia, the focus lies on the theoretical model behind the machine, but this is what his implementation looked like:

The Bombe.

It looks big and clunky and mysterious, but on the inside, you can imagine it a bit like this:

The idea of a Turing machine.

A Turing machine really only does a few things:

  • It moves a tape back and forward. The tape has symbols on it, each written down in a single cell.
  • The machine reads these symbols, one at a time.
  • Then, it decides what outputs to generate based on the inputs it receives.
  • Finally, it writes the output on the tape and moves on to the next cell.

Despite its seeming simplicity, the Turing machine changed the course of history unlike any other invention ever made. The moment Alan Turing got his theoretical model to work inside a real-world machine is one of the greatest moments in the history of mankind.

Here’s why.

Read More

How To Tell If Somebody Is Intelligent

Nik

In 2014, I took an official IQ test by Mensa in Heidelberg (Germany). I just had to know. Here’s a picture right before the test:

About a week later, I got my result: 131. Just above the requirement threshold to be eligible for a Mensa membership, which corresponds to the highest IQ category in most ranking systems.

That immediately gave way for a follow-up question: If I’m so god-damn smart, then why the fuck am I not rich and successful yet?

Three years later, I think part of the answer is this: Intelligence isn’t just about logic. It’s about emotions, too.

Read More
The 5 Most Powerful Questions Every 20-Something Should Ask Themselves Cover

The 5 Most Powerful Questions Every 20-Something Should Ask Themselves

Nik

It was a random moment. Not one you’d celebrate. Or even notice, for that matter.

I was walking along the sidewalk, like every day. Morning snack from the bakery in hand, headphones in my ear, Kygo playing on repeat.

Suddenly, I stopped dead in my tracks.

*Ping!*

The insight hit me like a stun grenade. I actually had to step aside, into a little alleyway, so people could pass me by.

“You will never figure out life. There will never be an end to all the questions. You’ll just get better at dealing with them and learn to do it faster.”

Read More