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How to ask for Referrals (Among other things)

How can I help? Do you know anyone that could use my help? Do you know anyone that could use my services?

These are all examples of exceptionally low agency questions. Not only is it difficult to answer the question, you subject your victim to a lot of additional work and thinking in their busy day.

It's like seeing your mom sweating away busy cooking, chopping vegetables and asking "How can I help?" It's a lot of work to manage you, and it's a lot of work to think about what you can do. Now she has to consider what's in your ability, what the unfinished work is, and prioritize that versus the other.

This post is my simple framework on how I ask.

My year at 1100ng/dL

I'm not a doctor, but I did manage to double my testosterone levels in a year. I'm going to talk about what I did, what I learned, and what I think about it:

  1. It's just a fact that male testosterone levels have been dropping for the past couple of years.
  2. I felt like I was in a rut and I wanted to feel better, and I did.
  3. I was such a psycho about it that I decided to go off the protocol.
  4. Despite that, I still think every man should get their levels tested and see if they can improve them. And just understand how they feel.

A Critique on Couches

Here are some fragmented reasons as to why I don't like having a couch.

The couch, often positioned facing a television, symbolizes the societal imposition of a predetermined essence onto our living spaces. This arrangement, reminiscent of Sartre's concept of bad faith, dictates the room's function and restricts its potential. It mirrors the limitations we place upon ourselves when we conform to societal expectations, disregarding our authentic selves.

For real.

I used to hate rich people.

This entire piece of writing is dedicated to a recent response on Hacker News. I hope you can see, as a member of reality, that I write this sincerely.

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Preamble

Also, I wrote this as a speech-to-text conversion. As I mentioned in my advice post about writing more, my measure for writing more is simply putting more words on a page. If you're wondering how I can be so vulnerable, it's the same as what I mentioned about confidence. If you think this comment hurt me remember that you're just a mirror.

I've also learned that writing is a exorcism of your own thoughts. The more I write, the less these thoughts stick around in my head.

Learning to Learn

After writing my post advice for young people, a couple of people asked about my learning process. I could discuss overcoming plateaus or developing mastery, learning for the joy of learning. I could also talk about how to avoid feeling overwhelmed by new topics and break them down into smaller pieces. However, I think that has been done before.

Instead, I'm going to explore a new style. I'm just going to go through a chronological telling of my life and what I learned from just trying new things. I'm going to talk about the tactics and strategies and see how this pans out.

Who am I?

In the next year, this blog will be painted with a mix of technical machine learning content and personal notes. I've spent more of my 20s thinking about my life than machine learning. I'm not good at either, but I enjoy both.

Life story

I was born in a village in China. My parents were the children of rural farmers who grew up during the Cultural Revolution. They were the first generation of their family to read and write, and also the first generation to leave the village.

Freediving under ice

Growing up, I wasn't very physically active. However, as I got older and had more time, I made a conscious effort to get in shape and improve my relationship with my body.

I had done plenty of sports before like you know ping pong or rock climbing or jiu jitsu but after I got my hand injuries during covid I really couldn't do any of that...