The Monthly Two Cents - May 2024 Edition
What Have I Been Up To?
I got to attend my first ResearchEd conference in Toronto! It was awesome. I wrote about my experience and takeaways here. It was cool to take the train from Ottawa to Toronto for the first time and be able to read and write while travelling. I also got to taste the famous Badiali pizza which lived up to the expectations. I watched the Toronto Maple Leaf’s game 7 loss against Boston outside the Scotiabank Arena.
I built the notes for the last unit of grade 12 calculus and created a bunch of visualizations using Demos 3D. This exercise is time-consuming but useful for the students and meaningful for the teacher.
I started physiotherapy again with my main therapist. Our teacher benefits for physio are generous so I might as well take advantage of the free personal training. It also acts as maintenance for my hips.
I had a major realization this month. I decided to shift my identity from consumer to creator. It’s time to start exploiting instead of exploring. Learning as much as possible when you’re young makes sense, but it’s time to switch gears and create more. Practically, this value shift entails reading less and listening to fewer podcasts. I also stopped tracking my Daylio mood after doing it for 2086 days in a row. I still keep track of my mood a few times a day using the How We Feel app.
I subscribed to Sportsnet to watch the Edmonton Oilers’ playoff run. It’s special to witness McJesus in action. He makes everyone around him that much better.
Two Cents
WealthSimple now allows for separate cash accounts. This is a game-changer when it comes to automating your finances. I may make the switch from Simplii since WS offers higher interest rates.
It’s interesting to see how house prices have skyrocketed relative to rent prices. Will they come back to being entangled?
I thoroughly enjoyed this cognitive science article on how to teach mathematics. It aligns with my ResearchEd takeaways. The gist of the article is that working memory is extremely limited. Memorization and fluency of facts and methods are an antidote to cognitive overload.
Here are two great blogs for other statistics nerds out there:
I like Sean Carroll’s grid of disputation (see image below). It’s a useful way to think about the people we disagree with.
Books Read This Month
I purchased and started reading the paper copy of the Active Inference textbook. It's a heavy read but a worthwhile one. Active inference is revolutionizing how we think about the brain.
I’m still reading The Experience Machine by Andy Clarke. It’s a good book so far and a good intro to Active Inference.
I started reading The Skeptic’s Guide to the Universe. This is a fun read that should be part of our school curriculum.
Follow my reading journey on Goodreads and catch my podcast insights on Snipd. Both sync seamlessly with Readwise, my go-to for spaced repetition and daily note reviews. Check out my all-time favourite books.