Heuristics
A list of maxims, tips, and tricks which I hope will help me to live more carefully and effectively.
General
- Whenever possible, prioritize getting enough sleep and body care.
- Stand up slowly, and get low quickly if you feel dizzy.
- Demand to be let out of a car ASAP if you feel a driver is not driving safely.
- Use checklists to ensure safe and complete execution of important tasks.
- Be mindful of how limits and abilities change as a function of activity and habituation. One’s capacity today is best predicated by what’s been done regularly in recent days, and only tentatively indicated by what one once did months or years before.
- Moods aren’t ineluctable: attention to appropriate objects intended with some deliberation can help transform them – anxiety can be inverted into anticipation, worry can bend into compassion, anger can smooth into determination. Each thing in the world is a portal to alternative configurations of being.
- An expedient hack can help, but don’t lay hack upon hack (unless you’re trying to break the system).
Software development
- Write and run tests before investing in documentation, application, or generalization.
- Devote time to document-producing design and planning prior to starting work.
- Implement minimal essential functionality, put it under test to verify correctness and guard against regressions, then elaborate.
Health Scares
An algorithm for addressing concerns
case `Is it exhibiting signs requiring emergency attention` of | Yes -> `Seek the TOP ER department` | No -> case `Is it exhibiting signs requiring urgent attention?` of | Yes -> `Schedule an urgent appointment with provider for ASAP` | No -> case Option of | A -> `Schedule a regular appointment` | B -> case `Wait and watch` of | Gets_worse -> `Is it exhibiting signs requireing emergency attention` | Stays_same | Gets_batter -> `Wait and watch`