I have a lot of free time waiting for my next job to start, and I really should be doing something useful with my time. I want to start my 10,000 hour trek into expert-dom; I want to start investing more into myself. But I don't know where to start. I switched from a political major into a psychology concentration but then stopped going to school (no money left to fund school, and I refuse to take out loans when a degree is not a guarantee of anything). And I'm in the mood to learn something useful. Something that will distract me from thinking about women, distract me from myself, and make me feel good. And, hey, maybe one day it could even pay the rent.
What's a useful skill you've developed?
Build your own computer and get it to handle something simple. If you can slap together a computer or even just put another hard drive in an existing machine, then install some distribution of Linux on it (or a BSD variant -- I'm not here to start a war), you will have a disposable tool for thinking more effectively about modern problems. Linux includes scripting and database tools. Are they all the best? Meh. Are they free? As in speech and beer. Is it obvious? No. Is it eventually more powerful for being less constricted? Yes. If you can already build a box, get more comfortable with shell scripting and regular expressions. Once you can think about common text and data processing problems more effectively, you can solve a lot of common "hard" problems.
Doing crap like this 15 years ago is what got me started down the path of my current career.
Cooking is always useful. Learning to cook is good for building attention to detail, developing an eye for quality and understanding what it takes to put something together. It also allows one to learn the value of things. For example, that $20 plate at a restaurant is generally assembled from ingredients that of course, cost much less. I'm glad that I learned to cook early on as it also helped me to learn how to budget and to shop for quality ingredients. Also, it's a skill that appeals to women, in my experience.
Ha unfortunately I don't have any basic ingredients or money to buy them yet. But that'll change soon, and I'll start with a copy of "the Basics" by Mark Bittman loaned by a friend. Two of my roommates are amateur cooks, so they'll help me finding good places to shop.
If you don't already, pick up an instrument. A guitar, or piano, or drumset, or whatever. Music can be very satisfying and rewarding, and it's fun once you get to the level where you can play new songs you hear or want to learn. I went into Buddhism in another reply to you, but in that same vein, I play guitar and piano and when I play it's almost a meditation of it's own kind. Very relaxing, and I don't think about anything else when I'm playing except for the music and what my hands are doing.
Some ideas: Meditation practice is a good backbone in developing concentration and emotional intelligence. Also yoga, for overall health (cardio, strength, flexibility all in one!) and supplement to meditation. Cooking makes for healthier eating, and an easy, intimate date.
Same way they'd get you to simmer down at summer camp: sit down and shut up. Now for the details: the proper sitting stance is the full lotus. However it's more important to get seated than to worry about an ideal stance. You can start out by grabbing a pillow (to raise your butt a little above your feet) and placing it on the floor a couple feet from a wall. Sit with one leg folded over the over and the pillow behind you (not you fully on the pillow), facing the wall. Then fold your hands in your lap and get your spine as straight. By the way, set a timer for twenty minutes. Leave your watch off, set your phone in another room and on silent. If your phone is your timer, even better that it be in another room. Be in the meditation for the whole time. This removal will help with being mindful. Okay, now you count breath. Focus your eyes on a point on the wall (a lovely crack, bug smear, whatever) and keep them open. Breathe in and out on a long, simple beat. Count one on the inhale, two on the exhale, then three up to ten. Here comes the first important part. If you lose track of your count, start over. Don't feel guilty or get hung up -- just count on one again. When you get distracted, start the count over. If you mind drifts instead of listening to the count and your breath as if they were the loudest and safest things around, start the count over. That is really it. When you first start, it's crazy hard. You want to use the time or think about something. You want a reason to stop. There isn't much going on. Right. Buddhism, much like Christianity, has involved a movement from one nation to another. It too has evolved and shed trappings. However it solves a different need, one that does not prevent a person from sticking with another religious or secular community. It's about accepting nothing, being comfy in the void. You're gonna die, folks are gonna suffer. The sooner you figure out your place in the suffer-scape, the sooner you can be useful to it. Warning: I am not a trained teacher. I'm just a dude. I spent time sitting, asked some questions, had some insights. If you want to learn more, read Philip Kapleau's classic *Three Pillars of Zen, available used for $8 or so in lots of used bookstores. Ask me and I'll come with a lot more resources about the history of Buddhism, Ch'an and Zen (the huge Taoist revamp that China gave Buddhism), stuff like that. But first, have a sit. Then have another.
Find my place in the suffer-scape, I like that. Is this something you have to do at a certain time of day? Can I do it before I go to bed, when I'm sleepy?
I'm also a self proclaimed Buddhist. I don't believe in the more spiritual parts of it. But I do have a small shrine with a Buddha, some incense, candles, and some water (for Buddha). It's mostly just the practice of replacing the water and meditating everyday that helps. Like pseydtonne said, the most important part of meditating is just to start. Clear your mind. Let thoughts come and go but don't focus on any of them or give them any critical thought. It's just kind of "standing back" and letting things happen around you and staying still and calm. In Buddhism, "want" leads to "suffering", and you can remove a lot of suffering from your life by removing the wants. You shouldn't want things, and I don't mean that in a material sense. Want a better job? Either get one, start working towards it, or forget about it, but it shouldn't be somehting that brings you down. Want a girlfriend? Start talking to girls and working towards it or forget about it, it shouldn't cause you pain one way or the other. Alan Watts is another author I'd recommend for Buddhism if you're interested in it. He has a very westernized way of explaining the eastern practice of Zen Buddhism. His books are very eye opening. The three I recommend are The Way of Zen, The Wisdom of Insecurity, and The Book. All by Watts. For clarification, I'm not religious at all. Buddhism to me is about mental and thought practices, and lifestyle changes that make me feel better everyday about whatever is going on and who I am.
Thanks. :) From where I'm sitting the skills that are mostly going to be in demand in the future are those which are very practical, rather than the more esoteric stuff. People are going to want things fixed, basic systems maintained and suchlike. When money gets tight, make and mend becomes much more important.
I'm a guy who has made his living from being handy with computers. I studied something esoteric - Sociology. I loved the major, I loved the statistics, I loved the field - but no one hires a dude with a sociology degree. So I leveraged skills I had built along the way in computers. Now I'm super far removed from hands on computer work, or sociology, but I don't regret either set of skills. I'm not telling you to give up your dreams - you should study what you like, make a go of it - but along the way, learning how to be a plumber is a valuable skillset that has steady market value.
Suggestion I suggest you and am trying to follow while without work: * Get up in the morning and run - 10-20 min., but do it. I was very skeptical about running too, but after my first 6km cross I signed up for many 5 to 10km running things. It strengthens all your body, it does not take long, you get to know people and actually do feel happier; * Get into cold shower next - not only you will feel amazing, alive after running, but will be ready for anything after such a happiness, testosterone boost!; * Get a light breakfast, something from yesterday evening what is left and veggies; * Do whatever you want; * Run in the evening for as much as you wish, it is great thing to do before bed; * Prepare something you can from the things you have - there are numerous websites with daily recipes, simple, cheap and healthy, you will never go wrong with learning how to cook. The simple idea what to do and how to feel things is important - not remembering the recipes one by one. Be sure to leave something for the morning to smash an egg on top and fry, or put on a bread - your pick; * Read few pages of book (if you have the idea of speed reading) and just between brushing your teeth and going to sleep close your eyes and meditate - think about nothing, blend in the environment, you are not there, you are THERE (as in environment) and after you get distracted by your thoughts, think and imagine what you want to achieve, what you crave and want to be, how will that feel, what are the perspectives... and you are asleep.. I don't believe that people can be focused on one thing for 10k hours straight, so these are just a common advices on keep yourself fit, help your immune system, happiness and testosterone, learn how to cook basic stuff, read a bit or perhaps start a small journal (I started a journal during my volunteering abroad and it is amazing thing to have), relax your brain and use the secret** to attract what you want the most! In mean time do whatever swings your boat! For me it is cycling and basic mechanics
Have you tried lifting things up and putting them back down? (Working out, I mean.) It's not a skill but it'll certainly distract you from thinking about yourself, probably from thinking about women, and definitely make you feel good. It can be hard to get into a physical fitness regime but it's extremely rewarding.
Could I just grab the heaviest, ergonomically practical thing in my house and repeat lifting? Because I could do that
I'm working on getting every transportation license available. I'm starting with motorcycles. I'll do the Motorcycle Safety Foundation test this weekend (after 20 hours of training, my first ever time on a motorcycle) and, if I pass, I'll take that to the state in exchange for an updated license. Next up is Boat Captain, then helicopter and pilot's licenses, which will take significantly more time. Boating licenses are something like 10 days, 30 hours, I suppose it varies but I want to get the highest level license I can. I was also made aware last night of a marksmanship class you can achieve in double-barreled shotgunning. Sounds interesting. Would definitely like to do the Civilian Marksmanship Program and achieve whatever certificates are associated with that. There's a lot to do out there. Find something practical that may apply to your life or something you never thought you'd end up doing (which is more what I'm after).
I see that you became interested in psychology, so why not continue along the path of understanding yourself and others more deeply. Here's a great course in interpersonal communication/applied psychology written by Dennis Rivers, a friend of mine who lives in Berkeley.
http://www.newconversations.net/
I think a skill that can be both challenging and rewarding is learning a new language. This is something that has real-world applications and plus, knowing how to speak in another tongue is dead sexy. I'm studying abroad the semester after this upcoming one, so I'm learning Italian. My parents both speak it fluently but I'm also using this really helpful site Duolingo and slowly but surely my skills have been coming along.
Around 2006, I interviewed a guy for my magazine publishing class, who had been working with fashion in some capacity for a long, long time. He told me that if you have any interest at all in working for a fashion magazine, knowing Italian is a huge leg up. Journalism isn't paying so well these days, but still, having another language is pretty useful. While the ability to speak another language is often seen as sexy, there are plenty of really unsexy languages out there!