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This book is not something I would consider reading a year ago. So why I write review of it right now? For some time I have huge backlog of books, about 100-200 books and it's much beyond what I can comfortably read in a couple of years. For this reason I pay special attention to all kinds of 'best books' lists to prioritize my backlog. Meditations is on many of those lists eg.  farnamstreetblog.com  so after seeing it so many times I decided to give it a try. It is interesting book for a number of reasons. You can learn a little bit about Stoicism philosophy, get glimpse of the old Roman Empire believes and culture, but more importantly you can read personal notes of Marcus Aurelius written to himself. They are personal thoughts and struggles of him that probably never were meant to be read by others. In this sense it is not a classical type of book, much more like collected notes. What strikes me is how similar his thoughts are to mine. Not all of them but many, do...

Great article from Hobby Gamedev:  Learn Videogame Development Like Woodworking It's not only about game development. Example about woodworking can be applied to learning all kinds of skills. This article found me in a good moment as I am prone to go for "I want to learn how to do it" or "I want to be gamedeveloper" without actually doing anything meaningful. Unfortunately it is a really big problem to me. From time to time I would read this kind of advice and a week or two later I would be back to "I want to learn..."  I don't know how much I should be concerned about it. Maybe it's natural but maybe it's a bit flaw in the way I think by default. PS. sorry for mourning, feel free to drop any tips about this.

This short and nice book for me is a source of motivation. It gives you kind of freedom to remix and imitate (with valid point that we can't really copy anything if we try to imitate). Some of the points in the book I have already learned the hard way so it makes me really interested in the rest of chapters. For example yet another time I see the advice to learn music/play on something and keep a diary of some sort. Those ones may be mine immediate takeaways. The Book is really short and fun to read (I have finished it in an hour or two) Rating: 9/10 Image from:  http://austinkleon.com/2011/03/30/how-to-steal-like-an-artist-and-9-other-things-nobody-told-me/

As I have mentioned in last post  this book was referenced in many books I have already read. Most of them were really inspired by concept of "Flow" so it was natural for me to eventually read it. Book is a lot about happiness and what it really mens. Author in his studies discovered that what we mostly think will make us happy is not working. What he discovered is one of most happy experiences is what he called "Flow". It is a deep concentration on a doable task what we immerse ourselves into. There is a list of things that are necessary for "optimal experience": challenging task (but one that can be done) concentration clear goal immediate feedback deep involvement - concentration only on the task (no worries or frustrations) sense of control over task and actions feeling of self disappears (and appears stronger afterwards) sense of time changes Some activities are more likely to generate "Flow" and for example Yoga practice...

Project/Game At the end of May I wanted to try idea from "First 20 Hours" . Unfortunately I must admit that it didn't work for me. Probably because I didn't want to give up on everything else I was doing and because of 'emotional' problems that he mentioned. Basically fear of failing, anxiety. I'm not sure but it's my guess. So what I managed to do? Memrise: http://www.memrise.com/course/48407/upper-intermediate-english/ http://www.memrise.com/course/70773/advanced-english-7/ http://www.memrise.com/course/81764/english-months/ http://www.memrise.com/course/3093/advanced-vocabulary-2/  (not all levels) http://www.memrise.com/course/86390/gsp-gowny-system-pamieciowy-2/ I managed to keep up with words I already learned and practiced them whenever memrise asked me to recall them. Duolingo: https://www.duolingo.com/course/en/pl/Learn-Angielski-Online I'm at level 9 in english right now. I'm trying to practice every ...

There is a reason why this book was recommended to me so many times. It's really good. I mean it's not even good on the level of game design book. It's much more than that. Just read it: 10/10