#30 - Where Squirrels Don't Shop
The Challenge of Microlearning; 30 Minutes Longer; Getting Lost At Target
Hello, my friends,
Happy new year to all the Jews out there! By the time you read this I’ll be frying pancakes at the North Shore Campground in San Bernardino, California, USA with my brother, Igor. Will they be delicious? Absolutely! Will the instant decaf coffee I’m drinking be even better? It will not. But in the outdoors, even a coffee snob like me appreciates a warm drink in the early morn. I expect that besides eating, we’ll also go boating and hiking and (I hope) see some interesting flora and fauna. I’ll try and have some photos next week.
The Challenge of Microlearning
Though I’ve written about microlearning before, most recently in #23 and before that in #15, my quest to learn some Jewish prayers keeps it on my mind. Lately, I’ve been pondering the importance of maintaining the appropriate challenge level in keeping one’s momentum going. A major way that I’m studying Hebrew words and, at the moment, nikud (vowel symbols), is by using the excellent Anki app for flash cards. What I have found is that if my corpus is too easy, I’m not motivated to do my daily minutes because my mind repels boring drudgery. And if it’s too hard, my mind looks for an easier way to gain satisfaction. So what satiates the mind? Achievement with struggle.
It’s where in a day’s practice, a few flashcards are easy wins and several keep me shrugging, but most are ones where I have to pause, think, and work it out; labor is what makes the invisible reward worth it. And it is invisible because presumably, it’s some neurotransmitter drip (dopamine?); my motivation for learning this stuff is purely intrinsic, though I guess it would be nice if I got cool five dollars slipped to me every time I met a learning goal. Regardless, because the daily span of microlearning is so short as it is — meaning it’s very easy to skip — keeping the challenge level balanced is vital. That means, when I find myself missing a day or two, I make it a point to review the content of my flash cards and (usually) add a few new cards or approach the topic from a new angle. Another thing my mind likes? Freshness. Achievement with struggle and freshness, yup, them’s the ticket.
30 Minutes Longer
My work schedule changed this week. For the past six years I have been working ten hour days, 6:30a-5:30p, Monday-Thursday with Friday through Sunday off. This Monday was the first day of my new schedule: 8-5 Monday-Thursday and alternating Fridays and Saturdays. Initially when my supervisors told me that my schedule would be shifting, it was a shock. I’d worked my life around a specific rhythm for over half a decade and suddenly change was imminent. My whole vibe was piqued!
It took a drive home and a conversation with Ashley to bring me back to the ground. In truth, childcare was the main challenge and that was solvable, beyond that was all possibility! Starting my shift an hour-and-a-half later meant that I had the morning to write, exercise, or even just to sleep! All of these options excited me! But maybe most of all, I was elated by the 30 minutes I gained from the end of my workday. Previously, I had to practically run to the car and peel out of our parking garage in order to pick Michael up from school on time even though it’s located only a few minutes from our home. Moreover, going directly from work to parenting mode with no interlude was exhausting and stressful. Starting this week, I rest for 15 minutes after work, stroll to Michael’s school and walk home hand-in-hand with him enjoying the afternoon weather (and then get in the car to go pick up Sophie 😊).
Realistically, the novelty of this new schedule will wear off in a month or two, but I hope not to give in to using every morning for extra sleep. Writing and exercise are also important, the latter even more so as I age. There are other details about my schedule change that are nice, like that I get to go preach the library gospel at more outreach events since I work Saturdays.
All told, I feel pretty lucky going back to a schedule that most people consider their normal life.
Getting Lost At Target
In addition to their superpower, every superhero has a weakness. Superman has Kryptonite, Wolverine is sensitive to magnetic fields, and apparently Storm, who can control the weather (hence the name), is claustrophobic! What’s my weakness? I am very bad at finding stuff at stores. Supermarkets and giant everything-stores like Target are the worst; I will walk around Ralph’s for an hour looking for five objects even after asking three different people. I rarely even bother with Target, I just ask the first person I see, go to the approximate area they point me to and ask another person there. Then I’ll walk by the item I’m seeking two or three times before it magically appears. It’s a lot worse when I’m looking for an unusual food or lesser-known object — I’d like to give an example or two, but what the heck, I’ve forgotten them all! *shrug*
Thankfully, my weakness is tempered by a related strength: I’m very good at remembering the location of objects I’ve seen before. When, as a book shelver at a fairly large public library, I would be asked by the librarian to go retrieve something, I could usually go directly to the exact location of that item on the shelf. This skill saves me from getting overwhelmed at large stores I visit often — essentially I memorize the layout of the store and the exact location of the items I buy frequently. Nerdly enough, I sometimes make my shopping list in the order of location of the items as I mentally traverse the store in advance.
This talent has a slightly eerie side, too: Sometimes, I remember the location of objects subconsciously; Ashley will be looking for something and I will, unexpectedly even to me, be able to tell her exactly where it is, even when it’s not in plain sight. In such a situation, I might get up, walk directly to a pile of stuff in another room and pull the sought object out. It has a vaguely “Rain Main” quality. I suppose if the library thing doesn’t work out, I can always find work as a sort-of Shabbos goy at a dementia clinic (a bizarre fate for a Jew, no?). Parallel thought: The reason for all of this is that I was a squirrel in a past life and I’ve kept the instinct to recall where all my nuts are buried. The metaphor tracks even further because squirrels don’t shop at Target.
This section got weirder than I expected and for that I make no apologies. See you next week!
Whoops, accidentally published this a day early. Don't be confused. It *is* still Thursday. The pancakes will be Friday morning.
Achievement with struggle and freshness... Ah, wise words, Mister Squirrel.