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The red pill-blue pill concept was introduced by the Wachowski Brothers in their 1991 blockbuster The Matrix. Following a series of surreal misadventures, the main character is confronted with the choice to take a Red Pill and “see how deep the rabbit-hole goes”, or take a Blue Pill and wake up thinking it was all [...]

When mastering any discipline, you’re bound to run into the Plateau Effect from time to time. For awhile, your mastery increases steadily through training or studying, but then you begin to experience diminishing returns. The slope of mastery versus time evens out, until you reach the plateau point, when it seems like further investment just [...]

Starting tonight, I’m doing a 30-day challenge: study logic for one or two hours a day for a month. Why am I suddenly doing this challenge when I’m already a grad student in mathematics? Because the time is approaching for me to take the general exam. This test, also sometimes called the PhD candidacy exam, [...]

I’m a little late to write up the last report, because as soon as I finished the challenge, I fell into a deep slumber and woke up many years later to find out my hair had all turned white and King George no longer ruled the American colonies. Actually, I just got extremely lazy for [...]

I’m still catching my breath from today’s very long but very satisfying run. Twenty-seven days ago this run would’ve killed me. I love seeing how far I’m coming in this quest. Here’s what I’ve done at the gym the past five days: Monday: A lower body day, I put the main emphasis on squats. Squats: [...]

I decided to make this entry a five-day entry instead of 3-day entry, in part because I’ve been pretty busy the past few days. The photos posted are from day 19, since at the time, I was expecting to do another 3-day post, for which 19 would be the midpoint. Here’s what I did in [...]

As I compose this writeup, my arms are aching and groaning in protest I’m glad it’s a good sore! This is day 17 of my 30 day workout challenge, and that guy in my bathroom mirror must be doing the same challenge ‘cuz he’s starting to look pretty good Here’s what I’ve been up to [...]

I just finished a late night light jog around the neighborhood, to finish the fourteenth day of the thirty day workout challenge I’m currently on. Almost halfway done… or should I make it sixty? You might wonder why the sudden change from routine today– Sam’s working out outside the gym?? Of course that’s because the [...]

I just had a great upper body workout, walked home glowing with all the warm fuzzy feelings that produced, ate a great meal with my beautiful girlfriend, and took a nice shower. This was the eleventh day of my current 30 Day Workout challenge, and I feel like a million dollars I actually didn’t sleep [...]

Distractions have continued, keeping me from doing a lot of work on the blog, even though tons of cool ideas for articles have been swirling around constantly in my head. So today I’m posting yet another three-day block. I may be distracted, but I won’t let that get in the way of a 30-day challenge. [...]