List of things to Master

@jakubknight, I spend a lot of time trying to figure out what is relevant to my psychological balance and to appropriate interactions in my life, then I attempt to objectively figure out the best possible application of those. This is something a person can spend their entire lifetime working on, when they are not doing anything more interesting, and it is likely something unmasterable, but it has a lot of benefit to coming close and getting better at.

Trying to figure out the evolution of consciousness, where it started and how Darwin is just a chapter of it (past), how we use it today (present) and what where it leads us in the future. I hope I could write a novel about that :)

Also discovering how genesis discribes the beginning of our material world in a scientific way. At the end of the story I hope to combine the scientific part with the spiritual part. Also I like to write a novel about this, I hope the novels will awake some readers one day.

Further I like to draw geometric figures and find a deeper meaning in them.

Don’t forget to do fun stuff in this material world! I also organise a mini-festival, follow a cursus pottery, learn woodcarving and I like to start gorilla gardening.

Dancing
Arabesque Geometry
Math
sculpture
Writing
survival and hitchhiking
This last one might not count as mastery but: overcoming the fear of physical pain

And those are my goals (:

If everyone here likes planning to do things, you might want to check out the Day Zero Project, or 101 amazing things in 1001 days.
There may already be a thread/topic for it somewhere on this site, but it’s retty interesting, especially seeing what the top things people want to do are, even if most of them aren’t mastering things

@rainclouder, I too want to be the greatest pokemon master

Standing on my hands
Math
running fast
Dance

Here’s a list of stuff that I am currently teaching myself (1), know well but could know better (2), and stuff that I’ve put on hold learning, but want to start again (3).
Haskell programming language (1)
Python programming language (2)
C/C++ programming language (2)
Tensor analysis (3)
Guitar (3)

POI

I don’t know if I want to master anything tbh. I say this because it puts unnecessary pressure on something you are meant to enjoy doing. Perhaps the one thing I would like to master is finding the balance between becoming good at something and not putting so much emphasis on it that I end up quitting after not being the best (I say this because I have quit on a lot of things in the past when I have realised that I will never be the best at it. Stupid, I know!)

But in terms of things I would like to practice/become good at:

- Spray paint art. I guess to most this is graffiti, but I don’t want to bomb walls illegally and I don’t have much interest in learning large word pieces. I have a tremendous amount of respect for the origin of graffiti and have watched a lot of docos on street and train culture but, like tattooing, I feel if you respect the origins of the art it doesn’t mean you have to do what a large percentage of the community are doing. I am currently working on 5 by 7 sort of sized stencils and am also experimenting with abstract pieces on canvas. I would like to spend more time developing my own style in 2013.

- This year I have had the great fortune of meeting a French girl, and we have spent almost all our time speaking French with one another. I learnt the language colloquially (along with German) from a young age, and having not spoken either due to living in Australia for 11 years now, it has been great to find that after a couple of weeks back into it I am almost at the level I used to be. I was talking to myself around the house in German today (yeah, batshit crazy haha) and was pleased to discovered that I still remember a lot. I would like to be able to spend some time with German people in 2013 in a bid to refresh my brain with the other language I learnt as a child.

- Piano. This, along with drums, seems to be an instrument I was made for. I say this because as much as I love guitar, it is something that I struggle to maintain focus with after years of playing it. I like jamming post-rock kind of music but the frequency in which I am able to play with people is severely limited. Piano is an instrument I have always sat down with, and while being FAR from perfect, have still managed to teach myself basic melodies and song structure after 10 minutes of mucking around. Like drums, I would like to sit down and become more efficient as opposed to erratic.

- Building! I received an offer yesterday to go build houses on the border of Cambodia and Thailand when I have finished studying and this sounds like something I really have to do with my life. On top of that, the children there are always looking for education and I’d like to think my love for children combined with my love of languages is something that might benefit others.

- Someone already mentioned harmonica and I agree! I feel as though this is an instrument that would further my progress with my undisciplined guitar practice. Especially because I love listening to Bring Me Your Love by City & Colour, an album that has a great combination of the two!

- Fishing! Over New Years a group of friends and I are going on a camping trip up the coast. When I went to buy a new tent I decided it was time after a long break that I’d get a new/decent fishing rod and take advantage of the quiet time up there. The mornings are all scheduled for light showers so I’m looking forward to getting out there while it’s still quiet and casting a line and watching the world go by (probably crank the Alan Watts discography on the ipod while i’m at it :) haha)

There is more, but I feel as though that is probably enough to keep me going so far as plans go for 2013. As with this year, lots of things came into my life that I never saw coming, so it’s important to have some space available to take on those surprises that you decide to make a part of you :)

tl;dr I like things.

/ramble

In 2012 I…
• Self-taught using (including readings, exercises, etc.):

http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/mathematics/18-330-introduction-to-numerical-analysis-spring-2004/index.htm

http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/mathematics/18-901-introduction-to-topology-fall-2004/index.htm

http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/mathematics/18-950-differential-geometry-fall-2008/

http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/mathematics/18-238-geometry-and-quantum-field-theory-fall-2002/index.htm

http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/biological-engineering/20-330j-fields-forces-and-flows-in-biological-systems-spring-2007/

Etc.
• Learned conversational Hebrew
• Read 3 books a week
• Improved myself as a pianist

In 2013 I want to…
• Self-teach more (although with more cognitive science in the mix)
• Train for long-distance running
• Improve my Russian (and Hebrew)
• …