The reality of learning

I find myself slowing slipping back into that studying phase of my life. But sometimes I ask myself, "what is the point?"

Practicalities of VCE

You see, VCE is literally the first time that all our subjects are chosen by the student themselves, no subject is "forced" upon you. In previous years, there were the core subjects (e.g. English, Maths, Science, Humanities, LOTE) plus some additional electives (Computing, Commerce, Design), but this year it was all up to me to decide what I wanted to learn. Generally, I'd say I'm quite enjoying the subjects I have picked so far. I'm interested in both maths, both sciences, and even English Language (despite years of English struggle).

But as Confucius once said, "知之者不如好之者，好之者不如乐之者" (getting my Chinese practice in), meaning basically those who like something are better than those who know it and those who enjoy it are better than those who like it. Right now, I feel like I'm still stuck between the levels of "knowing" and "liking", but in order for me to really achieve well, I need to progress to the level of "enjoying" the things I learn.

Shifting mindsets

One key test of basically anything in life is how strong you are mentally. Recently, I've started feeling that my mindset is changing in some aspects. At last I'm trying to apply the principles above to my work ethic. I'm starting to enjoy English Language because I'm actually curious about how we all use language as a fundamental part of our lives. I'm enjoying Chemistry because it is making many things about the world much clearer to me.

But I still need to work on converting Chinese from something I am learning because I want a high-scaling mark, to something I enjoy learning about and that I am passionate about. That is probably the only way I'll be able to obtain anything good from it.

Toning things down

One of my all-time favourite apps to use is Notion and it is a really popular app at school from what I can tell. Not only does it help with taking and organising notes, but it can be used as an overall life manager for scheduling, task managing and much more. But the thing is, I've started to notice that more and more people have increasingly complex/advanced Notion setups, which to me seems counter intuitive as Notion aims to de-clutter your life, not make it more confusing.

So recently, I have been trying to cut down on the amount of stuff I do in Notion and instead use apps that are more specialised in certain areas (Todoist, Fantastical, Anki). In fact, I only have 3 pages in my Notion now.

My Notion Workspace

There is not much point that I feel in spending too long making the "perfect" Notion workspace, you'd be better off dedicating that time towards actually working anyways.

A new device

Well, thanks to my Apple stock performing so well and along with some other cost-saving measures taken, I've upgraded my laptop from what was a Dell XPS 15 (7590) to a base model 16-inch MacBook Pro.

Although people usually say money can't buy happiness, in this scenario I'm 100% sure it can. The differences between the two are night and day. From my limited 2 days of using this, the battery life has been insane, I've gone literally these 2 days without charging it and there is still more than 50% battery left (with apps like Discord and Notion open). Previously, I would go half the day with the XPS and then it would die on me, which is really annoying considering I've gone fully digital with books and notes at school.

Plans for next week

1. Start memorising my Chinese roleplay script
2. Get more sleep per day (minimum 7.5 hours, yes friend I already know that's so little)
3. Beg Man City to win