All posts tagged: productive

‘Extremely positive and productive talks’: Trump praises Xi meeting

‘Extremely positive and productive talks’: Trump praises Xi meeting

Published by Sam Flores

Chinese President Xi Jinping warned his US counterpart Donald Trump that missteps on Taiwan could push their two countries into “conflict”, a stark opening salvo as they met in Beijing on Thursday for a two-day summit. The Chinese Foreign ministry said the comments came in a closed-door meeting that lasted more than two hours. It was followed by a friendlier, opulent banquet during which Trump and Xi stressed the importance of working together. Story by Carys Garland. Keywords for this article Source link

Avoidance That Hides in “Productive” Therapy

Avoidance That Hides in “Productive” Therapy

Published by Jenni Sidey

Beyond avoidance of people, places, or activities, avoidance as a psychological process refers to the various ways a person distances themselves from intolerable thoughts, feelings, memories, wishes, fantasies, etc. If the avoidance is very effective at its job, then the whole process may be kept out of a person’s awareness for maximum self-protection. As a result, both patients and therapists are susceptible to avoidance dynamics in the therapy without recognizing it, especially if one or both individuals are in fact working very hard with good intentions, and therapy has the “look” of being productive. However, if the avoidance remains outside of awareness, that hard work will not lead to meaningful gains, leaving patient and therapist feeling stuck, confused, disappointed, and possibly resentful. Thinking and Doing as Avoidance: The Patient Therapy tends to include at least some elements of insight, psychoeducation, and supporting rational thought (thinking). Moreover, patients often benefit from various strategies like behavioral activation, engaging with fulfilling life activities, and maintaining physical activity (doing). However, for some patients and some presenting problems, these useful …

The Productive Writing Routines of Haruki Murakami, Stephen King, and Virginia Woolf, Explained

The Productive Writing Routines of Haruki Murakami, Stephen King, and Virginia Woolf, Explained

Published by José Betancourt

Just days ago, Haru­ki Murakami’s Japan­ese pub­lish­er announced that his six­teenth nov­el will come out this sum­mer. A brief sec­tion of The Tale of KAHO, trans­lat­ed into Eng­lish by Philip Gabriel, appeared in the New York­er in 2024. The full book will run to 352 pages, mak­ing it a fair­ly hefty work for a 77-year-old nov­el­ist who’s been at it for almost half a cen­tu­ry now. Murakami’s unflag­ging pro­duc­tiv­i­ty must owe some­thing to his famous­ly rig­or­ous con­struc­tion of his life around the twin poles of writ­ing and run­ning, two activ­i­ties that demand long-term endurance. In the video above, the YouTu­ber Mari­Writ­ing attempts it her­self: wak­ing up every morn­ing at 4:00 a.m., work­ing on a sin­gle project for five to six hours, then run­ning ten kilo­me­ters — or, in her case, at least get­ting out and walk­ing for a while. How­ev­er indis­pens­able Muraka­mi may con­sid­er run­ning to his writ­ing life, he’s also employed oth­er idio­syn­crat­ic and seem­ing­ly effec­tive tech­niques of which oth­ers can make use. Take, for exam­ple, the way he got over the block stop­ping him …

‘Tokenmaxxing’ is making developers less productive than they think

‘Tokenmaxxing’ is making developers less productive than they think

Published by skeptic

There’s an old saw in management: What you measure matters. And, typically, you get more of whatever you’re measuring. Software engineers have debated productivity metrics for decades, starting with lines of code. But as the new generation of AI coding agents delivers more code than ever, what their managers ought to be measuring is less clear. Enormous token budgets — essentially, the amount of AI processing power a developer is authorized to consume — have become a badge of honor among Silicon Valley developers, but that’s a very weird way to think about productivity. Measuring an input to the process makes little sense when you presumably care more about the output. It might make sense if you’re trying to encourage more AI adoption (or selling tokens), but not if you’re trying to become more efficient. Consider the evidence from a new class of companies operating in the “developer productivity insight” space. They’re finding that developers using tools like Claude Code, Cursor, and Codex generate a lot more accepted code than they did before. But they …

Iran denies any talks with US after Trump claims ‘productive’ discussions | US-Israel war on Iran News

Iran denies any talks with US after Trump claims ‘productive’ discussions | US-Israel war on Iran News

Published by Sam Flores

Senior Iranian officials have denied that Iran held talks with the United States, just hours after US President Donald Trump claimed “very good and productive conversations” had taken place towards ending the war. Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said in a social media post on Monday that “no negotiations have been held with the US”. Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of list “Fakenews [sic] is used to manipulate the financial and oil markets and escape the quagmire in which the US and Israel are trapped,” Ghalibaf wrote on X. That echoed earlier remarks from Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei, who also denied that any discussions with the US had taken place. In comments shared by Iran’s official IRNA news agency, Baghaei said that “messages have been received from some friendly countries regarding the US’s request for negotiations to end the war”. The denials come as the US-Israeli war on Iran has entered its fourth week, with the Israeli military saying on Monday that it had launched a fresh wave of attacks on …

I turned my old gamepad into a macro pad and I’m more productive than ever

I turned my old gamepad into a macro pad and I’m more productive than ever

Published by skeptic

I was looking for ways to enhance my workflow by reducing some strenuous and repetitive actions when I came across the idea of a macro pad. These small, programmable input devices can be used to reduce multistep workflows to a single button press. I can launch apps in my writing stack, execute shortcuts, insert text, and even automate some tedious, repetitive tasks. But then I started thinking about whether I really needed a dedicated macro pad for this. In the end, all I needed was an input device with buttons that could connect to my computer. That’s when I remembered an old third-party controller (I don’t remember the brand) that I bought for my Nintendo Switch when my Joy-Cons started experiencing stick drift. I am using a Windows computer, so I also recalled that there is an easy-to-use scripting tool called AutoHotkey (AHK) that can detect the controller input and trigger actions. Using a controller as a macro pad was a productivity game-changer Breathing new life into my old controller So why did I resort …

Why the Most Productive Thing You Can Do Is Pause

Why the Most Productive Thing You Can Do Is Pause

Published by Jenni Sidey

Three weeks ago, I did my usual 4-square breath and one-word check-in at the beginning of my graduate social work class. Most of the students shared words like: exhausted, tired, and burned out. In response, we talked about the upcoming school break, and one student said, “I feel guilty when I do nothing for 5 minutes.” I was shocked! Especially after someone else agreed with her. I then asked the class who else felt that way, and all but one student raised their hand. That experience inspired me to write about the power of a pause. Students shared that they were raised to work all the time, or that there was always more to do, and they had jobs, families, and assignments to manage. I diverted from the topic of the day to discuss why we need time — even just a few minutes a day — for our brains to do nothing. The Always On Culture “Between stimulus and response, there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. …

People Who Become Happier And More Peaceful With Age Usually Practice These 6 Daily Habits

People Who Become Happier And More Peaceful With Age Usually Practice These 6 Daily Habits

Published by Jenni Sidey

In his 2014 commencement address to graduates at the University of Texas, Admiral William H. McRaven shared exactly how daily habits can ultimately lead to a happier, more peaceful life as you age. In fact, Admiral McRaven said that we can all change the world by simply making our beds each morning. While this seems like an odd correlation, research studies back up the idea that small habit formations are more likely to stick and, in turn, lead to the formation of additional healthy habits over time. That’s why many people who get better at life as they age recommend forming these small, yet meaningful habits. They’ll ultimately help you live a better life and bring you closer to achieving your dreams. People who become happier and more peaceful as you age usually practice these six daily habits: 1. They create a morning routine PeopleImages.com – Yuri A via Shutterstock The first 90 minutes of your day are the most critical. Studies have indicated that in these first moments of your day, you set the …