I've had a few friends who've gone through quitting smoking. The hard part, they say, is that certain things trigger wanting to smoke. Stressful situation? Time to smoke. Driving a car? Time to smoke. Drinking at a bar? Time to smoke. The reason that bad habits are so hard to quit is that we have these many triggers that start us down that path almost automatically. A compulsive eater might get into a stressful situation and have a hamburger halfway into their face before they even consciously think about whether or not they should be eating.

The silver lining of this nuance of human nature is that we can also harness triggers to create positive habits. Just as bad habits are so hard to break because of our triggers, good habits can be made resilient using the same mechanism. And just as bad habits are built slowly and incrementally, so are good habits.

I meditate for five minutes every day. As soon as I wake up, I grab my phone and press the start button on a five minute meditation timer. Waking up is my trigger. At first I had to remind myself to do the meditation every morning, but now I do it almost automatically. It would feel strange not to meditate. Just as a veteran smoker is likely to have a harder time quitting than a new smoker, the longer I keep my meditation habit, the easier it becomes to maintain.

There are two main types of triggers: contextual triggers and constant triggers. Waking up is a constant trigger, since I do it every single day and want to meditate every day. A contextual trigger is something that happens at an inconsistent frequency. For me, feeling tired during the day is a contextual trigger. Whenever that happens, I drink a glass of water, because I've found that sometimes I'm just dehydrated and not actually tired.

Here are some examples of constant triggers:

• waking up
  
• going to sleep
  
• eating a specific meal
  
• an alarm set on your watch
  
• opening your computer
  

Here are some contextual triggers:

• feeling tired
  
• the phone ringing during work
  
• feeling hungry
  
• receiving an email
  
• turning on the TV
  

Constant triggers are best used for daily habits that aren't related to the trigger itself. For example, if you want to write a blog post every day, you might use your lunch as a trigger. Whenever you finish eating lunch, you start writing. Contextual triggers are best used to remedy problems or maximize situations. Maybe if you're feeling hungry, you eat a cup of raw broccoli and three walnuts. That will make you less hungry and force you to eat nutrient dense foods. Or maybe whenever you turn on the TV you do fifty push-ups to combat the sloth of TV watching.

Another trick I use is using habits as triggers. Meditation is a trigger for getting out of bed. Before I meditated I might sit in bed and read facebook on my phone, but now the final bell of meditation is my trigger to get out of bed. Getting out of bed is my trigger to put a pot of tea on the stove. Turning on the stove is a trigger to brush my teeth. Drinking tea is a trigger to go through email and star the ones that need replies. Finishing my tea is a trigger for writing my daily blog post. Saving the blog post is a trigger to plan my SETT work for the day.

By chaining these habits together, I'm able to have a very productive morning almost on autopilot. Sometimes I take a step back and notice that it's a little bit strange how set in stone all of these things are. I can sort of imagine a world where I wake up, leave the RV, and eat a stack of pancakes, but it seems like a very foreign series of events that couldn't ever really happen in my life. Just as waking up is a near-certainty, so are all of my chained habits. I have a similar chain for going to sleep as well.

The one chink in the armor of all of this triggering and chaining is that it falls apart very quickly when traveling. When I was in Japan last month I would usually meditate every morning (though only at about 70% consistency), but because I didn't have tea or proper brewing equipment, my whole chain fell apart. I'd often get writing done and usually get to my email, but it took thought, happened at random times, and just didn't happen some days.

I think that the solution to this may be to either go mostly contextual while traveling (write blog posts for the entire duration of any flight, go through email whenever alone on a train, etc), or to come up with a simpler chain that doesn't rely on anything I don't pack. Even that would fall apart when traveling with other people, I think. The good news is that having all these habits makes it very easy to fall back into the swing of things when returning from a trip, which makes me less concerned with falling off while traveling.

Anyone who has tried to quit a bad habit, which is probably all of us, knows how powerful triggers can be. If they're going to make more work for us when eliminating bad habits, we may as well co-opt them to make less work in our everyday lives.

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AUSTIN MEETUP: TONIGHT, Thursday May 23rd at 7:15pm, at Casa De Luz on Toomey Road. This is my favorite (vegan) restaurant in Austin. We'll all have dinner there together until 8:30 or so. Everyone is welcome. 

Photo is the temple on Mt. Misen.

I have two seemingly conflicting beliefs. The first is that whenever possible, it is best to know the truth. By default I think that we sometimes avoid the truth, and we sometimes avoid giving the truth. In almost every case, though, having a clear picture of the truth will allow you to operate more correctly. At the same time, I also believe that holding certain beliefs will benefit you whether they're true or not.

One such belief is that anything is possible. Even in the face of seemingly impossible tasks, I like to believe that maybe I can do it. It's a little bit insane for me to believe that a two-man team of Todd and me can compete against WordPress and Tumblr, but I really believe that we can. Now that we've built something that people really like it's not so crazy, but it was really crazy when we first started. When I got into pickup, I had to believe that I could go from being extremely introverted and awkward to extroverted and sociable. There was little evidence to support that possibility.

I say that these two ideas seem to conflict because I believe that they are actually quite compatible. When looking at the history of others, as well as my own history, I've noticed that we consistently underestimate what we are capable of. Our idea of an honest look at our capabilities is actually further from the real truth than is the assumption that we can do everything.

Rounding up to the nearest 'everything' is not only more accurate than our best critical assessment, it's also much more valuable. The cost of being wrong is usually illusory. If you think that you can become a master violinist, act like it, and turn out to be wrong, you'll still make more progress than if you believe that the ceiling on your ability is lower. At the same time, the cost of incorrectly capping expectations is to provide an artificial ceiling on your achievement. I'm not sure I've ever seen someone progress further than they believed they could.

Believing you can do things that don't seem realistic is a self-supporting belief. You go on faith for a while, and then you actually do exceed a more "realistic" view of your capabilities. That proves to your brain that, at least sometimes, believing that you can do anything is closer to the truth than your best self-assessment. The next time you act on a mix of faith and tentative optimism. Go through enough of these successes and your realistic assessment starts creeping up to believing you can do anything, and the belief becomes easy to support.

Could you become a great artist? Could you start an successful company? Could you date someone amazing? Could you change that crippling bad habit you've lived with forever? Could you give up a lifestyle you're unhappy with and switch to a new one? If self doubt has been holding you back, my suggestion is to try on the belief of "Maybe I Can", and act accordingly. Personally, I believe that you can do just about anything.

###

EDIT: The meetup is on THURSDAY at 7:15pm at Casa De Luz on Toomey Road in Austin, TX. I accidentally scheduled posts out of order! 

Photo is from a 5-way matcha taste-off that Leo and I did. The winner was Breakaway Matcha Blend 99, but the 97 Blend was very close.

I've talked a lot before about priorities in a macro sense-- that it's a good idea to have one large overriding first priority. In my case, that priority is SETT. So when another really exciting project comes across my desk, I can easily turn it down and just focus on SETT. On a daily basis, though, SETT isn't actually my top momentary priority at all times. If it was, I wouldn't ever eat or sleep, because working on SETT would be more important.

One of the keys to high efficiency (which translates directly to high productivity) is knowing what you're doing next. The biggest indicator on whether or not I'll have a productive day is whether or not I know exactly what I should be working on. When there's one big fix that needs to be created or one big feature that needs to be built, I have no problem putting in a 12-14 hour day. On the other hand, when I have ten low priority things I could work on, I tend to get much less done.

These deliberations happen outside of SETT, too. If I have a good block of SETT work to do, should I skip my daily blog post? What if a friend invites me to tea?

Without a clear hierarchy of priorities, it's easy to succumb to decision paralysis. I might start a paragraph of a blog post, but then when it's not coming together well, go answer some emails. To combat this, I decided to take the time and write out my micropriorities. Here they are with notes:

1. Critical SETT bug fix. If there's a security issue or if SETT is down, I will drop everything to fix it, always. This includes going to bed on time and eating meals.

2. Things I've committed to. I believe that it's extremely important to follow through with what I say I'll do, and to do so in a timely manner. I will actually compromise other high priorities for this, because I believe that reliability is part of the bedrock that makes me a productive and trustworthy person. So if I tell someone that I'll bring them to the airport, I'll be there on time to pick them up rather than work. Because keeping SETT is an agreement I have with all of our customers, though, it will override an agreement I have with a single person to keep SETT running.

2b. Reading after midnight. Once midnight comes around, reading until I sleep overrides all priorities except for things I've committed to and critical SETT stuff.

3. Meditation and working out. Both of these activities create cumulative benefit that affects many areas of my life. They build my willpower and my health, which improve everything else on this list. Unless I've committed to do something that conflicts (like lead a trip in Japan), I will get these two done.

4. Consuming two healthy meals and one pot of good tea. Like meditation and working out, good food and tea provide cumulative benefits. They are slightly lower priority because I enjoy them and will seek them naturally, so I'm not as worried as breaking the habit.

5. One blog post a day. This blog is read by thousands of people and the feedback I get tells me that it's been an important factor in a subset of those reader's lives. It's also been a really positive factor in my life, allowing me to become a better writer, connect with some really great people, and create a body of work. I've been writing for eight years now, making it the longest running project of my life, so I do what's necessary to keep it going.

6. High priority SETT work. I divide SETT work into different categories because it's the background of my day. If I didn't allow certain other things to override certain classes of work, I wouldn't be able to keep myself healthy and mentally sharp. High priority SETT work includes bugs where stuff isn't displayed properly, new features that will have a big impact, RSS issues, user account issues, and issues that are preventing bloggers from publishing posts. There's also a subjective element to this, where features I'm really excited about might be bumped.

7. A few hours of socialization per week. I play poker with a friend for a couple hours on Mondays and Fridays (but won't go if he's not going), and I have tea with good friends almost every week. The first 5-10 hours of this are at this priority, but they drop off after that to the point that I won't really schedule them.

8. Some Travel. Up to a few good trips a year, I will prioritize travel. It broadens my perspective, helps me build language skills, and allows me to visit and make friends all around the world. Lots of high priority SETT work will prohibit me from booking any trips, but lower priority won't.

9. One masterpiece per week. Every week I try to experience one masterpiece. I define a masterpiece as a great work (musical, opera, symphony, art exhibit, ballet, speech) or just being in nature. This is to keep my own standards high and to inspire me. When I see something that required a great amount of effort to produce, it motivates me to continue to put great effort in on my projects. I don't actually keep track of this, but I try to average roughly one a week.

10. Email. Not all email is prioritized equally, and the amount of time I have available to me also factors in. If I have a lot of time and a bunch of low-urgency emails, I'll probably skip them for the day in favor of a good block of SETT work. On the other hand, if I have an hour of spare time and some urgent stuff in my box, email might get bumped above my daily blog post. On average, though, it's right around the same level as low priority SETT work.

11. Low priority SETT work. It may seem strange that the bulk of SETT work is my last priority, but actually there are thousands of other priorities below it. I never get to those priorities because there's always low priority SETT work to be done. Non-SETT priorities above this level are all limited (two meals, 5-10 hours of socialization, one masterpiece, 2-5 trips per year), so they can't fill my time.

A couple interesting things to notice here:

Habits get bumped

I made the conscious choice to prioritize habits over other really important things. I believe that a habit that is followed consistently is worth much more than a habit that is followed inconsistently, so making sure I follow through is a matter of efficiency. Sticking to hard habits also creates willpower and discipline, which are traits that carry over into my regular work. I believe that I'm actually able to produce more high priority SETT work by bumping it for meditation, diet, and (maybe) exercise.

When I'm on top of my habits, which is probably 90% of the time, I also feel more effective and confident. This keeps me in a positive and proactive mood, which helps me stick to my priorities.

Inspiration over Low Priority

My goal is to be doing as much high priority SETT work as possible. Critical work probably means that I've screwed something up, and low priority might mean that I'm not properly inspired (although sometimes it just means that some slogging has to be done).

For months I couldn't figure out a good way to have infinite indented comments, which was something that was really important to me. I remember exactly when I came up with the idea that is now implemented-- I was riding my motorcycle on the way back from the Legion of Honor Art Museum in San Francisco. Maybe it was a coincidence that I came up with it after admiring Van Gogh and Monet's paintings and Rodin's sculptures, or maybe experiencing greatness put me in a mindset conducive to producing my own little masterpiece.

Travel and social interaction are also forms of inspiration. Since getting really serious on SETT I've become brutally restrictive about who I spend time with. I meet up with good friends, people I find inspiring, and people who are introduced glowingly from a friend. When I travel I make an effort to seek out masterpieces (best Oolong in China, Macchu Picchu in Peru, etc) and to immerse myself in the culture.

Wrap up

It's an interesting experience to articulate your micropriorities and to see them stacked up on top of each other. Combatting indecision becomes a lot easier when you can scan down the list and see what you haven't done yet. I've meditated today, and have scheduled my workout and meals, so once I finish this blog post, I'll move on to high priority SETT work. There's no real decision making to be done because I have this blueprint for my days.

Your priorities are probably much different than mine, so my list may bear no resemblance to yours. That's a consequence of having different macropriorities. The important thing is to know what those macropriorities are, and to design micropriorities that support them.

I have a really strong desire to be the best person I can be. Not in the Army reserves sort of way, but eliminating weaknesses and building strengths. I think it's a ridiculous privilege to be alive, and I want to make the most of that. I have a human mind, so I want to sharpen it. I have a human body, so I want to strengthen and protect it. I have fellow humans, so I want to relate to them better, learn from them, and benefit them however possible.

Part of the human experience is having faults, and like everyone else, I have lots of them. Through my path in life, though, I've been lucky enough to really experience and understand that all faults can be fixed. Some of my biggest faults, like my social ineptness and my lack of discipline eventually got turned around into strengths. Once you go through that experience of turning a negative that feels like a part of you into a true strength, you see all weaknesses in a new light. Anything that I don't like about myself can be fixed completely.

This process takes time and effort, though, and I know that I have a limited amount of both. That means that at all times I should be making myself better in some way. I have long term campaigns like eating healthy, meditating, getting good sleep, traveling, etc., but I also add new things all the time. I never have the urge to put off fixing myself because I know that my life is only so long and that there are a lot of things to fix. For example, Mystery posted a video to his wall about the damage that pornography is doing to men. My consumption of pornography was probably lower than average anyway, but I quit cold turkey immediately after watching the video. I don't find things like that difficult, because my impulse to improve myself is much greater than any other impulse I have.

Some people may object, saying that it's best to be happy with you are and not feel like you need to improve and fix yourself. I agree with that, too, and I don't think that it's a contradiction. It's natural to be very happy with something imperfect, but still enjoy improving it. I've liked my RV since the first day I bought it, but I still fix and improve it as time goes on. I'm proud of my blog, but I always try to improve my writing and the blog platform itself. In fact, I think that a certain level of self esteem is necessary for long-term self improvement. You have to believe that you're worth improving and that you have the capability to do so. There's a difference between feeling like you have to fix yourself to be an acceptable human being and loving being a human so much that you want to become as good as you possibly can.

Just as being a programmer is useless unless you are actually writing programs, improving yourself is only part of the equation. Building yourself up only for personal satisfaction seems like a waste, but up to offer more to the world is an amazing thing. I build my work ethic so that I can make SETT into a great blogging platform for everybody, and hopefully help the spread of good discussion around the world. I invest in my health to keep myself able to produce for more years, and even to maximize the time I'll get to spend with my children and grandchildren. I quit porn because maybe doing so will improve my relationship with whoever I end settling down with. I improve my social skills to help me learn more from others and share more with them in return.

My favorite people in the world are people who share this obsession with practical self improvement. I love their genuine enthusiasm for life and for the experiments they're trying out themselves. My favorite part of the recent Japan trip I went on was the unusual concentration of self-improvers in our group. We ended up overshooting our first train stop by over an hour because we were all so sucked into conversation, excited to hear what everyone else was working on. Most people on the trip, myself included, actually took notes from each other.

It's such a great thing to be alive, and to get to experience what it is to be a human. Wouldn't it be a shame to not become the best human possible?

###

Photo is me at the top of Mt. Misen in Miyajima, Japan. Definitely worth a visit!

My friend Ben Yu, has recently taken to rebutting all of my blog posts on his own blog. I hope to prove him wrong on the first one through action, but I'll address the second one with words.

In his post, Enjoy It Above All, he references my post about sprinting to the finish line. The danger in that, as he illustrates through an example with him literally sprinting to the finish line, is that you may burn yourself out and lose motivation. When he pushed himself too hard on his regular runs, he ended up becoming demotivated and then giving them up.

Should Ben be sprinting to the finish line every time, or should he take it easy and stay motivated? I think that's a false dichotomy that ignores the much more important question-- what else is at stake?

The problem with taking it easy is that you're not building good habits. Instead of creating a pathway in your brain that pushes through discomfort, and tries to enjoy it as much as possible, you're creating a pathway that yields to discomfort. That's dangerous. Instead of learning to love, or at least be neutral on, things that are hard, you're allowing yourself to dislike them. That's dangerous, too.

I go to the gym three days a week. I've heard rumors of people loving the gym, but I've never been able to understand it. Let's just say that I work hard to be neutral on it. Today I was there, and I had just broken my personal record for deadlifts and military presses, and was slated to do 140lb lat pulldowns, which was also going to be a personal record.

I was dead tired from the first two exercises and completely worn out. For the first time since my first week working out, I had that impulse to just go home. In less than a second, a mess of justifications for leaving flashed across my brain. I had already pushed myself enough. I had a flight to catch later. I was too tired.

I've trained myself, though, to see personal weakness as opportunity. Aha! Now I have the chance to set a precedent. When things get hard and I don't want to keep going, what do I do? The reason I was disappointed in myself for quitting the Peru Hike wasn't because I thought that continuing was a smart idea; it was because I didn't like setting that precedent of giving up.

So I did the pulldowns. They were really hard, and I struggled on the last few reps, fighting for each inch. Then I did barbell curls and took a shower, barely able lift the shampoo bottle.

If I had quit early or lifted less weight, would it be easier for me to go to the gym next time? Absolutely. But is that the point? Is making it easy on myself really something I want to move towards? If it's the difference between burning out and continuing, then going easy is obviously the right choice, but I'd argue for the third option-- going hard and not quitting.

This is, of course, harder, but it's also just a skill. Just as I could barely deadlift any weight when I started, there was a point in my life where I could barely convince myself to do anything I didn't want to do. In both cases, though, I worked on it and built myself up slowly. Now the weights I once struggled with feel comically light, and I'm pretty good at making myself act in spite of my impulses.

By developing systems to get yourself to do, and even enjoy, difficult things, you build your grit. By pushing yourself when others would give themselves permission to slack, you're building grit, too. That's probably more valuable than the weightlifting itself, or running for that matter.

###

Photo is of Leo, Carl, and Ben in Japan. They apparently started a gang called the CVs.

I'm in Austin-- should we do an Austin meetup?

I think that some might be surprised to hear how much I sleep and how important it is to me. I average right around eight hours per day (tracked for a few months), and prioritize sleep very strongly, even over most work.

Once ten pm comes around, I have four options for things I'm allowed to do: I can play violin, read a book, work, or sleep. Computer is off at midnight every day, at which point I usually read for an hour or two, and then go to sleep.

The other night I was tired at ten, but I was really excited about my work so I tried to push through and keep at it. I was stuck trying to fix something, but I managed to try five or ten solutions out before getting in bed. At the time, it felt like a good choice.

I woke up the next morning, took one look at the code, and spotted the solution instantly. Within five minutes it was fixed. Once is a fluke, but I've noticed this pattern over and over again with work when I'm tired-- it feels like I'm working, but often I'm just spinning my wheels.

Normally when I'm tired I give myself the option: continue working or sleep. Both are equally good to me because I don't believe that a person will naturally oversleep in the long term. When I tracked my sleep for three months I'd occasionally sleep for ten or even eleven hours, but then the next week have a coupl days where I only sleep for five or six. Without trying, it always averaged out to eight.

Just as good work is a function of both quality and quantity, good rest is also function of both quality and quantity of sleep. Here are some of my best practices for sleep:

-- I keep the same schedule every day, which includes a no-screens period before falling asleep. This one change to my life took an erratic and crazy sleep schedule and made it consistent and functional.

-- The only caffeine I drink is from tea, and only early in the day. Usually before noon, but always before five pm.

-- I drink water before going to sleep.

-- I also drink water during the day any time I feel tired. Usually it wakes me up within an hour.

-- I try not to use an alarm clock. Exceptions are made for flights and early meetings.

-- I sleep with ear plugs. I sometimes sleep with a sleep mask, which I think is a really good thing, but I'm not consistent about it.

-- I take naps if I need them because I know that tired work is maybe 20% as effective as rested work.

-- I set the thermostat to 65 degrees. There seems to be some debate about it, but I've seen a few studies that recommend that temperature.

-- I stop eating by 9pm. I'm not confident that this matters, but not having simple carbs late is almost certainly helpful.

We definitely have a culture where lack of sleep is glorified. I think that it's a good skill to be able to operate as well as possible on low sleep, but that doesn't mean that that skill should be exercised regularly. By getting a full nights rest and sleeping as long as your body wants you to, you can easily overcome the raw time shortage through better focus and higher quality work.

If you want to start towards better sleep, my top recommendation is to set a specific time to turn off all screens. That one simple hard rule will have a serious positive impact on your sleep within a week, which will motivate you to try out some of the lower impact strategies.

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Photo was a drunk salaryman in Tokyo sleeping in a squat on an otherwise empty train. Probably not great sleep...

A lot of you who have been following Tynan for a while probably understand by now that Tynan loves traveling and he's also learning Japanese these days. I'm sure a lot of Tynan's readers share a common passion for travel, and I'm sure a lot of you are either studying or planning to study a foreign language.

Now, does learning a foreign language have to be expensive? Do you need to register in a college course and spend thousands of dollars on tuition fees and so on? From my personal experience, and from the experience of several polyglots who have taught themselves to speak countless languages, the answer is no.

But when you're new to the self-study of a foreign language, it can be hard to know where to start, and especially what kind of textbook or method to purchase. So I've recently written a review on my blog, lingholic, of 5 methods that I consider worth looking into if you'd like to kickstart your study of a foreign language, based on my 6+ years of experience learning languages and dealing with textbooks, university courses, and methods of all sorts. I hope it'll be useful to you!

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The best self-study language method?

There are a lot of self-study language methods out there, and for the person looking to learn a language on their own, it can be hard and confusing to choose the method that suits your needs. There are plenty of great methods available to students wishing to learn a language on their own, and in this post I’ll try to tackle a few that, in my opinion, as well as in the opinion of some of the most well-known polyglots out there, are some of the best and easiest to go through.

So if you were to ask “What’s the ‘best’ method out there?”, what could a seasoned language learner answer? Well, the truth is, there is no objective or universal answer to this question. Since we all learn in different ways, some methods might be more suitable to some people than others. Plus, different languages might need to be learned in different ways, again, depending on your learning style and on your ability to acquire and understand new grammatical structures and language systems. For example, I have learned Spanish very differently from Korean. Spanish is a Romance language very similar to French and English, languages I speak fluently. Korean, on the other hand, is at the complete opposite end of the spectrum. While Spanish can often be learned in a more “inductive” manner, this does not always work with Korean. So you’ll have to keep this in mind when trying out a new or old method and when relying on your learning habits that might have worked in one instance, but might not work the best in another.

Other examples abound, but the point is, don’t get stuck on a method that somebody has recommended because it worked for them. Some people love grammar, literally. They find they can learn the language quickly and easily that way. Others simply loathe it. The bottom line is, read about a few language methods, and try out a few to get to know which one might be the best fit for you. In this post, I’ve picked some of the most popular self-study methods out there, and I’ve tried to give you a very broad overview of what they do, and if they are worth your time and money. Hope you enjoy

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Method #1: Assimil

Average cost of the method: ~$50-70 for the Book + CDs Edition ($20 for the book only)

Available in: over 40 languages

Type of method: dialogues with minor grammatical explanations in footnotes. Audio, entirely in the target language, is included.

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The first self-study language I will introduce is one of my favorites, and it’s the favorite method of several well-known polyglots, including Luca Lampariello, who speaks nearly 12 languages fluently, and RobertBigler, a simultaneous interpreter from Austria who speaks many languages as well.

The method is called Assimil, and although it is not that well-known in North America, it is an extremely popular method in Europe. It's not the cheapest alternative out of the methods I'll be introducing today (roughly $50 to $70 for both the book and CDs), but it's an option seriously worth considering because of the quality and effectiveness of the method. So what is it, how do you use it, and why do I recommend it?

Well, first of all, Assimil is available in more than 40 languages. The series was created back in 1929 by Alphonse Chérel. From the website’s description, “[Assimil] enables beginners to acquire an average vocabulary of 2,000 to 3,000 words, learn the basic grammar rules, and gain a command of everyday conversation. The With Ease Series takes you to Level B2 [high-intermediate] of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages in a few months.”

Each method consists of a coursebook with 100 lessons on average (~4-6 pages/lesson). Each lesson includes a short dialogue (getting progressively longer throughout the book), written in the target language (L2), together with a translation after each dialogue, as well as short exercises to test your comprehension. You are recommended to spend at least one day on each lesson and to review them every once in a while. As you follow through the dialogues, you listen to the audio and read through. The great thing about the audio is that it does not contain lengthy explanations in English. I believe this is good and important, because there is nothing as annoying (and useless), in my opinion, as audio CDs that are half in your native tongue, with things such as “repeat the following sentence” or “pay attention to this particular ending”, etc.

Good points

Assimil, you might have guessed from the name, encourages learners to “assimilate” the language, similarly to how you assimilated your mother tongue when you were a child. It’s very intuitive, but at the same time there are helpful explanations grammatical rules and language expressions in the footnotes. I've personally found this method to work surprisingly well. I've also had a few interviews with Luca Lampariello, an amazing language learner by any standards who speaks 12 languages to a level of fluency quite astonishing, and in Part 1 of our interview he says that this is the method he uses whenever possible to learn a new language.

I think the strength of the Assimil method truly lies in the fact that you get to understand how the language works without any lengthy grammatical explanations. The grammatical concepts are thrown at you through practical conversations, and you get to read short explanations about these concepts after having actually seen them used by people, which I think is really important. Additionally, the dialogues are usually very practical, and contain words and phrases that you are very likely to use from "Day 1" when starting to speak a language with actual human beings. Since the method also tries to use as little English as possible, it gets yourself to think in the foreign language as soon as possible.

Bad points

Any downsides? Well, in fact, I’ve found this method surprisingly good and I haven’t found any major downsides to it. Nevertheless, here are two minor things that I could point out:

1) The dialogues do not have names of people, they are only numbered. It can sometimes be confusing to follow the conversations as, often, 3 to 4 people are having a conversation, so at times you’re not sure who’s saying what. It really is not a big deal, honestly, but I thought I’d mention it anyway.

2) In the Chinese method, for some reason the author thought it would be a good idea to put an exclamation mark (or an interrogation mark) to almost every single sentence in the book (no joke, it’s quite amazing). Not a big deal but you’re sometimes wondering why the speakers seem that excited. I haven’t seen this in other Assimil books I’ve looked at, though. Luca Lampariello has said that he was rather disappointed with the Chinese method of the Assimil series, but I’ve found it to be thorough and worth going through nevertheless.

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Method #2: Teach Yourself

Average cost of the method: ~$20-55 (depending on the level for each series)

Available in: over 65 languages

Type of method: Each unit in Teach Yourself usually contains a dialogue with direct translations next or below the sentences, as well as exercises, translations, grammar points, etc., together with audio CDs.

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The Teach Yourself Languages range is available in print, audio and CD packs, e-books, enhanced e-books (which utilize multimedia to enhance the learning experience), and will soon be launched as a series of apps for smart devices. Each new Teach Yourself product is graded according to a unique 5 level guide.

According to the Teach Yourself website, all of their language courses are suitable for beginners - they just get you to different levels of proficiency, at different paces of study. However, I have tried their Chinese method (Teach Yourself Chinese Complete Course, by Elizabeth Scurfield), and I’ve found it to be way too hard for a complete beginner in the language. Each unit introduces a whole new list of words and the pace is definitely too fast. In my opinion, this particular book is definitely suitable for a high-beginner (A2) or low-intermediate learner (B1).

In general, the Teach Yourself language series books are quite good, but many polyglots, as well as myself, prefer Assimil. Nonetheless, Moses McCormick, a polyglot who has studied over 50 languages, is well-known for using this method and he wholeheartedly recommends it.

So how exactly does the method work?

Well, it’s somewhat similar to Assimil. It’s basically a book that has dialogues included together with the audio, and you are directed through the various units and encouraged to go through exercises and so forth. However, the Teach Yourself method has, generally, many more explanations than Assimil, and therefore definitely more English. The method is also more varied than Assimil; as stated earlier, the Teach Yourself series has 5 levels, whereas the Assimil method has only 2.

The good thing about Teach Yourself is that their method is available in many more languages than most other methods out there. It’s also rather easy to go through even for inexperienced language learners.

The biggest downside is that depending on the levels you choose,  the pace of some books might go too fast for a beginner (such as the Teach Yourself Chinese Complete Course). In the latter case, you should wait until you have a reached a high-beginner (A2) or low-intermediate (B1) level before actually tackling it.

In this specific Chinese method, another big problem is that they don’t introduce any characters until halfway through the book. So you don’t even have the option of getting somewhat familiarized with characters at first. However, fortunately in the other Teach Yourself series I have seen, the scripts are indeed included from the very beginning, so this particular Chinese method seems to be just one bad apple.

In brief, Teach Yourself is a solid language learning series, although you should make sure the pace of their books suits your needs. The great thing about this method is that it’s available in over 65 languages, which is quite amazing, and the books can be easily bought pretty much anywhere. However, explanations tend to be lengthier than Assimil, and as such the Teach Yourself series definitely contains more English than Assimil.

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Method #3: Pimsleur

Average cost of the method: around $35 for sixteen 30 minutes-long audio lessons. Around $200 for the “comprehensive series”, which includes thirty 30 minute-long audio lessons and one hour of reading instruction.

Available in: Over 50 languages

Type of method: Audio-only method (in 30 minute-long lessons). Listen to words and dialogues in the target language and repeat.

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Chances are you might know Pimsleur from the amount of spam their affiliate marketers tend to send in your email inbox, with catchy titles such as “Learn a New Language in Only 10 Days!” This rather disappointing fact has somewhat, in my eyes anyway, tainted the reputation of this method. Anyone who makes a statement as bold and ridiculous as saying that you can learn to “speak” a language in 10 days probably has no idea what they’re talking about, or, just perhaps, they really want your money badly.

Now, before we delve into the pros and cons of the method, though, let’s take a look at what Pimsleur actually is. Pimsleur is almost exclusively an audio-only method, offered in over 50 languages (including English for native speakers of various other languages), and the method was developed by Paul Pimsleur (1927–1976), who was a scholar in the field of applied linguistics.

Pimsleur comes in a variety of programs, which you can have a quick glance at here. The programs are as follow: Quick & Simple, go Pimsleur, Basic, Compact, Conversational, and Comprehensive. The 4 first programs are really quite short, and do not cover more than a handful of lessons (10 at most, or 5 hours of audio). The comprehensive program, depending on the language, can be offered in as many as 4 levels, each level comprising 16 hours (16 CDs) of spoken language instruction.

The way Pimsleur works is rather simple. At the beginning of each lesson, you get to hear a short dialogue (~2mn) in the foreign language you’re studying. At the beginning you do not usually understand much of it. However, after having listened to that dialogue, the next 25 or so minutes are spent covering the words and phrases that you heard in that conversation, plus some more. You are strongly encouraged to listen to the speakers and repeat after them.

If you’d like to listen to a free lesson, click here to see their list of languages and simple follow the “free lesson” link.

Good points

Now for the good part: Pimsleur is undoubtedly an easy and convenient way to start learning a language, especially if you want to focus on listening and speaking skills. What I especially like about it is that it’s a great method to work on while commuting to school or work. For example, if you drive every day to work, and it takes you 30 minutes to commute, you’ll be able to go through one lesson each time you get to work. The speakers are also very professional, with a clear, neutral pronunciation, and you really do feel like you progress quickly while going through the lessons.

The other good thing is that it’s really easy to follow through. Many beginner language learners are kind of afraid of books and grammars and boring concepts. Pimsleur says adios to all that. Really, all you have to do is listen comfortably to the speakers and try your best to repeat after them. New words are also repeated many times, so chances are they will end up sticking in your long-term memory without too much effort on your part. Finally, the lessons progress at a reasonable pace, not too fast, and not too slow either (although I’ve heard some complaints from people who feel the lessons progress too slowly, but I’ve found the pace to be good enough, since new words and phrases really stick in your memory).

Bad points

Now for the bad part: well, let’s not lie to ourselves, Pimsleur is an expensive method. For most of us, this is a strong influencing factor when it comes to making the decision to purchase a language method. If money is not an issue, I’d say sure, give it a try. But before spending $200 on thirty 30 minute-long audio lessons, shop around to see if this money couldn’t be spent in a better way (i.e. any of the other methods in this post).

Also, as you might know by now, Pimsleur is an audio-only method (although the “comprehensive” program does include a PDF or a booklet). This means that you will definitely not be developing your reading and writing skills through this method. That’s OK if this is what you’re looking after, or if you’re looking for a method specifically suitable for listening on your MP3 or while driving to work. However, if you do wish to focus on reading and/or writing practice early on in your language studies, consider purchasing another method.

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Method #4: Michel Thomas

Average cost of the method: ~$75 for the Total Series, which includes 12 hours of audio on CD.

Available in: 12 languages.

Type of method: audio-only method. Listen to a live lesson given by a teacher with two additional students, and repeat after the teacher.

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Michel Thomas was a polyglot linguist, language teacher, and decorated war veteran who developed a language-teaching system known as the Michel Thomas Method. He claimed his method would allow students to become conversationally proficient after only a few days' study, and his clients included diplomats, industrialists, and celebrities. Michel Thomas passed away in 2005, so the newer products that came on the market since then have been developed and recorded by some of Michel’s former students who were trained to teach and pass down his technique.

The Michel Thomas method is a cheaper alternative to Pimsleur, but that doesn’t mean the quality suffers in any way; it’s simply a different method. While it's also an audio-only language learning resource, it differs from Pimsleur on a few important points.

Basically, the way the method works is that Michel (or the teacher teaching the language) and two students are recorded in a live lesson. Words and sentences and introduced with explanations, and within one hour you are expected to be able to construct simple phrases. You will learn the language with the students, hearing both their successes and their mistakes to keep you motivated and involved throughout the course.

Because actual students are involved in the recording, the pace of progress is realistic, and you almost feel as if you were in class with Michel and his students. Moreover, the students, at times, also ask for clarifications, for example concerning a grammatical concept or the pronunciation of a certain word, which well might be questions you have yourself in mind.

The method also tends to work in a more “inductive” manner (they let you “understand” new grammatical concepts through examples, rather than tell them to you right away). So you are sometimes given several drills around a certain sentence to make you understand how the language works, and slowly by slowly sentences are getting longer and more complicated based on what you have previously learned.

For example, in the Michel Thomas Spanish series, they will tell you that “Pablo is sick today” is “Pablo está enfermo hoy” in Spanish, and that “Pablo is a sick person” is “Pablo es enfermo”. So you are supposed to infer here the difference between the verb “está” and “es”, both meaning “to be”, through such examples (of course, you will have been exposed to these verbs and vocabulary prior to hearing those example sentences).

Another peculiarity of the Michel Thomas method is its high use of so-called “mnemonics”, or “memory-aides” to help you acquire and remember effectively newly-introduced vocabulary. Some examples can be downright silly, but that’s the point of a mnemonic, to come up with a silly association to make it stick in your long-term memory. To give you a simple example, in the Chinese series the teacher introduces the word for “where” in Chinese, which is nǎr (哪儿). The teacher then says the following sentence: "The poor man was 'nǎrwhere' to be found. Where is he now?” As you can see, through this menmonic, you will quickly remember that "nǎr" means "where" (or at least it's supposed to help!).

Good points

Michel Thomas is, overall, a great method that I would not hesitate to recommend. I think the strength of the method lies in its progressive building up of ready-to-use vocabulary, sentences, and expressions. They really try to give you all the tools necessary to enable you to make your own sentences as soon as possible, and to be ready to actually talk to real people. You do not get the kind of useless sentence such as “the elephant is behind the ball”.

The use of mnemonics is also something I personally find useful. It might not be to everyone’s liking, but I find that it really does help with the memorization of vocabulary, which is often something many students of foreign languages struggle with. Lastly, since real students are involved in the recordings, the pace is realistic, and useful questions that a normal language learner might have when going through the process of learning a particular foreign language are often asked.

Bad points

The most obvious bad side to the Michel Thomas method is its availability in only 12 different languages. So, for example, if you are looking into learning Hindi, you’ll have to unfortunately look somewhere else (I heard the Teach Yourself method for Hindiis particularly awesome, by the way).

Other than that, if you are a very fast learner or you have had prior exposure to the language you’re studying, you might feel that the pace of the method is a bit slow. As stated before, since real students are involved in the recordings and they themselves go through the method with the teacher, you are tied to their pace of learning. You might also not be that interested in actually listening to the attempts of the students at repeating and translating after the teacher.

Finally, just as with Pimsleur, because Michel Thomas is an audio-only method, you will definitely not be developing your reading and writing skills. However, it’s great for listening on your MP3 or while driving to work.

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Method #5: Living Language

Average cost of the method: 1book + 3 audio CDs: ~$22. 3 books + 9 audio CDs package: $50

Available in: Main textbook in 12 languages; various other textbooks combined in over 30 languages

Type of method: all-encompassing method mostly available in print (+ online courses through their platinum program), which covers vocabulary, grammar, and more through dialogues and exercises.

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The Living Language series comes in 3 products: Essential, Complete, and Platinum. The Essential courses are meant for beginners. The package has one book and 3 CDs that teach basic vocabulary and grammar. The Complete courses cover beginner, intermediate, and advanced levels. The package has three books and 9 CDs that teach more complex grammatical structures and more vocabulary than the Essential course. Finally, the Platinum courses contain the same content as Complete but with the additional tools of a language specific mobile app, a web course, and e-Tutoring included.

The Living Language website has a page with free downloads for PDFs in over 7 languages, plus phrasebooks in 12 languages and more. Check it out if you’d like to get a quick overview of what their method looks like.

From the method’s website, here is how they describe themselves:

The Living Language Method™ is not a game of charades. It doesn't force adult language learners to try to absorb a new language, like they could when they were babies. It makes use of all the tools that adults have at their disposal to learn efficiently and effectively, without clumsy guesswork or frustration, in order to really learn how to speak a new language. […]

It's easiest to learn and remember a new language when you use more than one sense. The combination of audio and visual input, along with written, recorded, and interactive digital practice, creates a true multimedia learning experience that actively engages you in your new language right from the start. In addition, special recall exercises move your new language from short-term to long-term memory.

This particular method is a bit more “all-encompassing” than the other ones we have looked at so far, with vocabulary lists, dialogues, many more grammatical concepts and explanations, comprehension practice, plenty of exercises, culture topic, and so forth. If, as the description of the method taken from their website suggests, you do not like “guesswork”, or, shall we say, learning in a more inductive manner, this method might be the right one for you. In this respect, Living Language differs quite dramatically from Assimil.

Good points

The Living Language method is extremely affordable (it's the cheapest alternative out of the 5 methods I've introduced here) and, on the whole, very thorough. If you have a look at the reviews on Amazon for their methods, you’ll see that most of them are 5 stars. From my personal experience using many different language methods, Living Language is definitely very professional, easy to go through, and affordable. I had been looking for a long time for a good Korean language method, and when I stumbled upon the Spoken World Korean series (made by Living Language), I was pleasantly surprised.

Bad points

Depending on the type of learner you are, Living Language might not be the right fit for you, since it contains lots of explanations, grammatical concepts, and, as such, a lot of English. However, this is what a lot of people are exactly looking for. This is a more “traditional” type of method, and if you feel this is the right fit for you, go for it! Lastly, in the Korean series, I must say that I found the pace to be quite fast. From the very first chapter onwards, a lot of vocabulary and sentences are introduced. However, I do not think this particular book is representative of the whole method. In doubt, looks for reviews or download their free PDFs, and make a decision based on your own observation!

A few years ago I visited the Dominican Republic, and its island-mate, Haiti. Dominican Republic is a relatively poor country, but Haiti is far poorer. In fact, it's the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. 

I met a nice family on the plane to DR and asked them if they'd give me a ride with them downtown. Sure, just help cover the gas. I happily agreed, but the amount they asked for gas was a few times more than it should have been. It was cheaper than a tax, so it was still okay, but it was just a little bit shifty. The security guard at the restaurant I went to every day was nice and friendly, but near the end of my trip he was just a little bit too aggressive about trying to get me to have my female friends in America email him. As I explored the old city, a guy told me that he was an official tour guide with the city and would show me around for absolutely nothing, just because it was his job. I knew it was a scam, but I'm willing to endure awkward situations, so when he very aggressively asked for money at the end, I told him that he should have asked in advance and gave him nothing.

I don't mention all that to imply that I was a victim of any sort-- just that that's the type of place Santo Domingo was. I had some good times there, too, but my experience was colored by this atmosphere of hustling and weaseling. After all that, I bought a bus ticket to Port au Prince. Being poorer, I figured that people would really be trying to get money from me there, but I should go visit anyway since I was so close.

My experience in Haiti couldn't have been more different. No one tried to overcharge me once. I had to argue with my Couchsurfing host to accept money for gas after she drove me around all day. She refused to accept money for the food that she cooked me every meal. I walked through the ghettos and was greeted by smiles, especially from the children.

Why such a big difference? I'm sure there are a lot of contributing factors that my short three week visit didn't reveal, but I think that the biggest factor is that Haitians don't have much temptation. In Santo Domingo there were visible signs of wealth from a small subset of the population, and advertisements everywhere for things to buy. In Haiti there was nothing like that, at least that I saw. It's not that they didn't know that nice cars and flat screens exist-- it was just that obtaining them wasn't an immediate enough prospect to cause craving.

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A few days ago I installed Nanny for Chrome, which is like Leechblock for Firefox. You can specify which sites you are allowed or not allowed to visit during different periods of the day. Productivity has been really good recently, and I wanted to make sure it stayed that way.

At first I blocked Reddit, Hacker News, and Facebook. Then I thought about it for a minute, deleted those entries, and added another one to block every single web page. In the whitelist section I then added back only the ten or so sites I need to access to work on SETT. The rule goes into effect at 11am and stays until I go to sleep.

I did this because I thought about DR and Haiti. It's not a few specific sites that are the problem, it's that my brain will look for an escape if one exists. If my main distraction sites are blocked, I'll come up with something I absolutely need to buy on ebay or something I absolutely need to learn on Wikipedia. If every single site is blocked, though, I don't really even feel that desire. The prospect of distraction is completely eliminated, so I don't subconsciously turn to it.

This may sound like a subtle thing or something that wouldn't work for you, but I bet that it would. Give it a try. I've only been going for a few days, but I haven't been distracted once. I've had impulses, but as soon as I remember that I can't act on them, I get back to work. It takes no will power to stay focused, because it's not really even up to me. There's nothing else to do.

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All of this awesome productivity has been channeled towards building a theming system for SETT. It will probably be a month or so before it's opened up to all SETT users, but I'm very psyched about it-- it's about 10x easier than making a theme for WordPress, almost as flexible, and more powerful in a couple key ways. 

If you have a SETT blog and are experienced with making themes, contact me. I may give you early access to help test it out...

Also-- I know I'm way behind on emails. I've been really focusing on this theme thing, but will catch up within the next week.

A while ago I was having trouble working. I had just begun a new workout regimen, which was taking up a lot of my focus and willpower, as well as leaving me more tired with the same amount of sleep. I felt as useless and helpless as I can remember, staring at a todo list with very simple items on it, and being all but unable to get myself to finish them.

Thoughts tend towards permanence. As I sat there staring at my list of things to do, I noticed a thought cross my brain: I used to be so productive and now I'm not.

In these situations, I find it helpful to remember that everything passes. My least productive days will yield to more productive days, and my most productive days will be followed with less productive days.

Knowing that I will be productive again when I'm unproductive helps me put things in perspective. Rather than wallow in the doom of "losing it" and being unable to work efficiently again, I see my failure as a temporary valley. This enables me to keep a good attitude about it and focus on crawling my way out of that valley.

On the other hand, when I'm operating at my peak, I try to remember that I won't always be like this. That helps me appreciate the work I'm doing, focus on keeping the ball rolling as long as possible, and deriving enjoyment from my performance, soaking in the view at the top of the mountain.

There are very few things that are permanent in life, and clinging to those things or even hoping for them is counterproductive. It's better to develop strategies that account for life's variance and capitalize on it.

Dating is another example. I think it's always better to assume that it won't be permanent rather than to assume it will be. Taking this attitude will allow you to fully experience relationships while they last, fully appreciating the other person. When single, it allows you to enjoy the benefits of being single, knowing that it won't last forever. Contrast this to someone who takes their partner for granted, assuming the marriage will last just because of a half-day ceremony, or someone who complains about being single, ignorant to the benefits of being so.

As a rule of thumb, it's usually helpful to understand how the world really is and to plan around that. Almost everything in life is transient, so enjoy it while it lasts, and plan for what may come next.

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Photo is Shibuya, Tokyo at night. Some awesome videos from the recent Japan trip:

http://misol.com/lost-in-trainslation-part-1

http://misol.com/lost-trainslation-part-2

http://misol.com/lost-in-trainslation-part-3

I've been on an awesome run of trips recently. I've gone to China, Peru, Mexico, and Japan, and have paid $1350 total for all four flights. That's roughly the cost of the normal price of just ONE of the more expensive flights on that list. I have a few tricks to share with you which are responsible for these four flights.

FlyerTalk Mileage Run Forums

You may already be aware that there's a group of people online who are completely obsessed with miles and status on airline frequent flyer programs. They all congregate on a site called FlyerTalk.com and discuss mileage runs, which are flights so cheap that it's (nearly) worth going just for the miles. In fact, many members go on trips that last for just hours before they get back on the plane home.

You may not want to take trips like that, but you can use their forum to find extremely cheap flights (and get miles while you're at it). Just go to the Mileage Run subforum and search for your home airport. You can also check out this thread which has deals that are still very cheap but don't earn enough miles to qualify as a mileage run. Sometimes that's because the price is a bit higher, but often it's because it's an obscure airline with a crappy frequent flyer program or a fare class that doesn't offer miles.

This is where I found my Mexico flight, which was $273 for SFO-CUN. It also earned me ~$50 worth of frequent flyer miles.

GetGoing

GetGoing is probably my favorite new startup, despite the fact that they got into Y Combinator and I didn't. The premise is that they have very low fares, but you can't choose exactly which one you want. Instead you pick two that you're willing to go on, put in your credit card info, and then randomly get booked on one of the two.

I chose Shanghai for $480 and Beijing for $500, which are both excellent prices. I was lucky to get Shanghai, which I had a slight preference for.

Good fares are somewhat inconsistent, so make sure to add everywhere you'd like to go as a favorite so that you can look at all possible options. On the West Coast they always seem to have great deals to Hawaii (~$250), so if there's only one great foreign fare, you can use Hawaii as a backup.

Another trick is that if you link your Facebook account with them, you get $25 off your first flight. That would have dropped my China trip down to $455 if they were running the promo back then. And if you refer friends (as I'm doing here), you get $50 if they book a flight within 90 days.

Kayak Price Alerts

I learned this trick from my friend Jenna Meister, who found both the Peru ($284) and Japan ($315) flights. Very occasionally, airlines will have ridiculously low fares for very short amounts of time. If you set up alerts properly in Kayak, you can get emailed whenever something good comes along.

To set these up, go to kayak.com/alerts and click "Add a flight price alert". Click "Top 25 Cities" and enter in your home airport and the region that you're interested in. Fill out your max price, switch the frequency to daily, and hit Save. If you want to go to a specific airport that's not a major hub, you could also add a fare alert for that specific city pair. Besides SFO, I also add OAK, SJC, LAX, and LAS as separate alerts, since it's very cheap for me to get to any of those airports.

You should now get emails occasionally when these deals pop up. It's important to jump on them VERY quickly. Often they evaporate within a few hours if not minutes. You can also check from the Android or iPhone apps throughout the day. I'm not too experienced with this, but Jenna recommends it.

Most importantly-- if you find a good deal out of one of my airports, email me and tell me about it! Dinner's on me if I book it!

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Photo is from Gangnam, Seoul. Yeah, I did the dance.