Pick of the week image:
I read Atomic Habits and wanted to talk about it
Thu Sep 15
Written by: Chris Pohlman
Pick of the week image:
This week I wanted to talk a little about how small improvements can pay off over the long term. If you spend much time around anyone who is extremely good or really successful at something they do and you ask them about it, they will likely all tell you something similar about how they got that way. Consistency. Consistency is key to improving at anything. If you do something everyday and each time you do it you try to push yourself just a tiny bit, you will improve at it. From day to day you likely won’t notice much of a change, but week to week, month to month, year to year those tiny improvements will compound in massive differences. So the next time you want to get good at something, first try getting just a little bit better than you are right now and then a little bit better than that.
This week I’ve been learning about stacks in my Data Structures course. Stacks are a data structure where the last item in is the first one out otherwise known as LIFO. If you have ever played Magic: The Gathering you are likely very familiar with the concept. If not simply picture a stack of books, you can put more books on top of the stack but you are only allowed to remove them one at a time from the top.
class Stack:
def __init__(self, max_size=5):
self.top = -1
self.max_size = max_size # TODO comment
self.items = ["" for x in range(max_size)] # TODO comment
def is_empty(self):
return self.top == -1
def is_full(self):
return self.top == self.max_size - 1
def push(self, item):
if self.is_full():
raise StackFullException.StackFullException
else:
self.top += 1
self.items[self.top] = item
def pop(self):
item_str = ""
if self.is_empty():
raise StackEmptyException.StackEmptyException
else:
item_str = self.items[self.top]
self.top -= 1
return item_strWhile this might only just barely count as cooking you do use a stove to make the key ingredient, in this case the caramel popcorn infused bourbon, so I’m going to count it. It’s perhaps a bit early to be diving into the fall recipes weather-wise, but Starbucks has the pumpkin drinks out and Halloween candy is decorating shelves everywhere so I wanted to share this recipe I found a few years back. You can use any caramel-popcorn you like, along with any apple cider and any bourbon, but I would suggest getting a high quality apple cider as a base for the drink, and pick a bottle of bourbon that you wouldn’t find in the well of your local dive bar. The recipe is linked above but It really is as simple as heating a cup of bourbon on low with a big handful of caramel-popcorn tossed in. Strain that out and either chill for later, or add 2 oz to some warmed apple cider in a mug and toss a pat of butter on top. Enjoy.
This weeks pick is really two picks, the app Libby and by extension, your local library. Because Libby uses your library card to give you access to all of your local libraries online materials on demand. You can checkout books, magazines, audiobooks, whatever your local library has available. And if you have multiple libraries that you have cards for you can add all of them and checkout materials from all of simultaneously all for free.