If you haven't made the switch to full battery electric vehicles yet, then there's a good chance that you're driving around in a car that is powered by a direct injection engine. If that's the case, then this video might be helpful. It's a good video on problems associated with direct injection engines and how to avoid them.

Interesting Reads

The Three-City Problem of Modern Life — interesting read and social commentary about the lives we live today. We either live in the city of reason, of faith, or of technology. Living in one city isolates us from the rest of the world and that makes us feel incomplete.

7 Tips to Stand Out And Land The Job — has great advice for job interviews.

A Roth IRA is one of the most powerful wealth building tools that the average person can use to become extremely wealthy... — good info on ROTH IRA accounts.

^ This is probably only applicable to US readers, as a ROTH IRA is a specific tax-advantaged account offered by the government. But if your country has a similar offering, then some of the info might still be useful.

On Social Media

Social media is like a sandbox where you can observe mimetic theory and mimetic desires in full display.

Shortly after hearing about Mimetic Theory, which I mentioned in Journal Entry – 005, I happened to run into this podcast episode. I listened to it in the hopes that I would learn more about mimetic desire/theory, as well as find evidences of it in our modern world. This podcast episode did not disappoint.

Link: WOF 3485: The Power of Mimetic Desire with Luke Burgis

Here are some of my takeaways after listening to the podcast:

One talking point in the podcast was René Girard's interpretation of the story of the adulterous woman brought before Jesus (John 8:1-11). This is the story where Jesus famously says, “Let the one among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.”

Before he even utters that famous line though, the bible passages specifically says that Jesus looks down and writes on the sand, while the scribes and the Pharisees try to get a reaction out of him. By the law of Moses they said, a woman caught in the act of adultery will be stoned. Jesus averts his gaze and keeps writing on the sand.

Interesting Reads

Creating habits: how long does it take to form a habit? — the title pretty much explains what this article is about.

So, how long does it take to form a new habit? Apparently, it takes an average of around 66 days, or 2 months, to form a new habit. That is way longer than what is normally mentioned in articles or magazines I’ve read. That means if you want to build a habit of doing pull-ups right after waking up, you need to consistently do it for 2 months straight.

After reading this essay, Peter Thiel's Religion, and finding out about the idea of mimetic theory, of us imitating others, my mind was opened up. I'm starting to see it around me. Most of everything we do is imitation. I don't quite know yet what to do with this new found information, but I'm excited to find out more about it.

I ran into the “Five Whys” technique in Anne-Laure Le Cunff's 5 thinking tools to add to your metacognitive toolbox.

Yes, I'm aware that the article says 5 thinking tools, but I only wanted to focus on just one — the “Five Whys” technique.

The “Five Whys” is a technique you can use to find an answer or a root cause, to a problem, a question, a desire or a perceived need.

^ Note that this is not how Anne-Laure Le Cunff described it in her post, but this is my own take on how and when to use it.

Has there been something you really wanted or wanted to do, but could not explain why you wanted it? If your answer is yes, then this is the thinking tool for you.

Tuned in to learn more about the Wisephone, but stayed for the parenting advice and philosophical/theological discussions. Excellent podcast. Well worth the 2 hours run time.

If you are a parent of young kids and you are concerned about how distracted you are around them, then you will find a lot to relate to in this podcast.

Interesting Reads

Personal Publishing Principles — this is a great read for someone interested in creating/maintaining a personal website or a personal blog.

One good tip that was shared in that post is that a personal website/blog is the perfect place for you to experiment with your own ideas. Not everything will work out of course, but keep trying and some will.

This also tells me that if your personal website won't allow you to do that, then you probably have a professional website as opposed to a personal one.

‘Pics or it didn’t happen’ – the mantra of the Instagram era — extremely good read on the use of social media, and how it changes the way we think and go about our daily lives.

An excellent read on the disconnect between wanting to achieve goals and the reality of not having “free time” to achieve them.

Link: No, you won’t make time. Because you can’t.

Here are some of my takeaways from reading this:

To achieve a goal, you have to give up something in return. In most cases, this means giving up time allocated to doing something you like, and using that time to work towards your goal.