Non-practice

In certain fields, I like training more than I like fighting.

While in London, I took some sport classes, various things, mostly fitness and aerobics.

In one of them, it was about boxing.

Initially, I thought we would do some fights, but I discovered that we mostly did training for an event that never occurred.

But I liked those pieces of training a lot, I think they helped me.

Similarly, in some classes I took some theatrical lessons and in others we also put on a play. I liked the preparation more than the show itself.

In boxing, training requires you do be more fit. To me, that’s the aim itself, not winning a fight.

In preparing for a theatrical spectacle, I get to do lots of things which I enjoy, while the play itself is mostly stress.

It’s like training for a marathon vs. running for a marathon. Training does all the good stuff for you (health, fitness, all is good), while the marathon race itself might not actually be that good for you.

People focus on running a marathon, but training for a marathon might be the better solution.

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How will AI influence teaching?

• Why should one attend conferences? The most important part is seeing a person in person. :) You see a person, you see how they act, you get the message much better.
• In chess, the use of computers made chess accessible to a lot of people. It democratized access to chess for pretty much anyone with a laptop/smartphone/PC. On the other hand, top experts still use human coaches. Personal relationships matter.

So, in my opinion:

• For a person with basic access to Internet, AI will make learning easy. If you wish to learn, and have access to Internet, you will be able to do so.
• On the other hand, I think teachers will still be important, the human touch is here to stay.

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Your life matters (even if you’re not famous) – Darius Foroux:

Here’s what most people get wrong. We think impact only counts when it’s big and public.
But that’s not how impact works.
Think about the people who shaped you most. A parent, teacher, or friend who said the right thing at the right time.
None of them were famous. None of them had an audience. They mattered because they were close to you, not because they were known to everyone.
That’s the rule. Impact moves through proximity, not popularity.

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If you have a habit of not wasting resources, you are an energy-saver.

On the other hand, if you have exceptions to the rule, you are a partial energy-saver.

And if you only save energy from time to time, you are a rare energy saver.

And if you never save energy, you are not an energy saver.

The conclusion? You are what you constantly do.

PS: “You” = “me”.

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Sometimes, I get upset. In a lot of situations, the best solution when this happens, the first tendency is to blame external factors.

But I found out that if I focus, instead, on what I can do, on my own input and solutions, the results are much better.

Most of the time, I can trace errors in my own judgment, rather than focus on external input.

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I don’t do betting on “real” things, money, objects, things like that. I try to avoid betting altogether.

But for some online occasions, where you bet just for fun, I like to do it, just for the sake of it, for trying new things, for testing my abilities.

You can see an example here. I’m somewhere in the middle, 24 out of 45.

For a person who didn’t watch 5 minutes of the World Cup, being “average” is not that bad.

What did I learn from the recent bets?

• Avoid going all in at all costs. Every bet should have a backup. For example, I was 100% sure that for a certain game, the result would be so-and-so. It wasn’t. A big surprise, all of that, but at the end of the day I bet everything on one game and lost. The fix? Bet something you don’t care that much about losing, or, as a bare minimum, bet in such a way that you will not be thrown out of the game. I managed to get more credits, but the lesson was painful.
• Trust yourself more. Even if a team is in the top 5 at the World Cup, even if in recent games they showed great results, this doesn’t mean surprises don’t appear. It’s very rare that even a great team keeps on winning. If you look at a team like “Oh, they’re in the top 5, they can’t lose”, that’s a mistake. They can lose. Put some faith in the little guy. And don’t blindly trust the big guy, the almost-champion. Every team can have a bad day. The error here is to trust so much in the “fame” of a big team, thus thinking they are invincible. All teams in Romania’s group in Euro 2024 had 4 points out of 9 possible, but Romania was first in the group. Romania was first with one victory and one draw due to other criteria, even if all the other 3 teams had the same result. Likely, this event would not repeat. But chance is possible; even the little guy can win.
• Strategy for betting on football games. If the teams are equal in value, bet for 0-0. One team is better than the other, but just a bit? 1-0 for that team. One team is much better than the other one? 2-0 for that team. There are exceptions to the rule, but generally these are good values to bet on.
• Test your skills in safe environments. I enjoy betting in environments where’s there’s no real involvement. I can test things. In real life? With real money? Almost never, and never-never for any significant amount of money.
• Finally, avoid bets. Most likely, the chances are against you. And, likely, you’ll not get the same satisfaction from winning a bet as you would get by working and earning money in more “traditional” ways. See my strategy on winning in casinos – A lost belief – Blog de Olivian Breda. Even that single strategy I had was not perfect. :))

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