This months challenge can’t be thought of too much, so instead of writing about previous challenges and writing a text I’ll just briefly mention the idea:

Challenge #43 Drifting Towards The Goal

I’m at a very goal oriented place in Berkeley now, while also being pretty confident my plan is to move to Berkeley or Oxford. I know the general outlook of the plan, I have some particular things I have to do in mind, but for the next month I’ll let myself drift a little more. Not in a completely general direction, but any drifting that generally goes toward some of the main overarching goals. I’ve done a nice amount of work to “aid” fate by reallocating here to begin with, now let us see what fate will have to offer.

And if today’s post seems too short, here is an hour long introduction to effective altruism:

If you just arrived at fourhourscience, take a look at the first challenge as it is the only one you have to go through to jump straight on to the current challenge. Do challenge yourself on the comment section, and every first of the month, I’ll start a challenge chosen by my readers, and ask how they are going at their own self-challenges. Every 15th, I’ll choose one for myself. If you want to give me a challenge, make a comment in the most recent post, which is where I’ll get them from every 1st of the month. To subscribe to fourhourscience.com and keep track of your challenges, click on the blackish square on the bottom right that says follow.  If you are logged in a wordpress account, check the top left instead. – Neotenic

Let’s reverse order today:

Previous Challenge Tracking

Challenge#46 Living as if Money Were No Object ain’t very complicated. I got a half-day job despite the salary, I shopped as if money was paper, went out to have dinner when I felt going out to have dinner was desired. I have no idea to be precise, but it may have costed even less than what it usually costs. It did make me feel better in that when I thought of rich versus non rich, it was usually thinking of what can others do with their power, not which imaginary line of financial success should I jump above.

Challenge#45 From Dabbler to Generalist, Ship Your Product This one is hard to execute. No, it is not hard. It is abysmally hard. Put yourself in my shoes, take a look at something old, a project you left midway through completion, or something you nearly finished but didn’t. First of all, what do you care about doing it now? It may not even be something you care about anymore. Also, think of why you stopped that project, maybe it was below your expectations, maybe you were afraid of external judgement. Maybe you were just doing it for yourself and pretending you wanted other people to appreciate. Well, I guess all that happened to me with one or another project. The fact is I can’t get my head around doing old stuff left undone, or I didn’t for these initial 15 days. To further complicate this problem – though it thoroughly enriches my life – I’ll be in California for next month, and finishing old projects is not the first thing that comes to mind when you think Yosemite falls, or Bay Area memes.  I have not managed to do this, which is why I’m leaving this to be the challenge for November 15th. I’ll just focus on the trip instead.

Then let’s do this.

#44 Stop Overthinking, Seize the Day

That  is simple, Robin Williams puts it well.

There are days ahead many, and days beneath are many others. In the last two years I can clearly trace the good days to be the days in which I am living the day, and the bad days I’m overthinking about the future. I’m good when I’m living the day, I’m bad when I’m deciding the tripartite conundrum of Oxford, Cambridge, São Paulo. Sometimes I even let Rio barge in the mental madness.  I’m good when I’m at a festival rollerblading and speaking to good looking strangers, I’m bad when I’m considering whether my actions will have the right repercussion a million years from now.

I’ll just stop overthinking. If I actually do what I think I have to do, great. If I don’t, I’ll just carpe diem, and that is that, no being somewhere trying to be somewhere else, no sense of obligation with my past self about my future self.  If I catch myself overthinking I’ll just punish myself out of this. It worked before  to stop me text-driving and entering facebook/email in the morning.  No reason to think it won’t work again.