Just some stuff I decided to share.
Think of the whole of existence, of which you are the tiniest part; think of the whole of time, in which you have been assigned a brief and fleeting moment; think of destiny – what fraction of that are you?
Marcus Aurelius
How I study
Since I plan to be studying for a few years I spent some time reasearching how to study more efficiently. There’s a lot of great sources and books on the topic. Dr. Rainer Storn’s How to Become an A-Student in Science and Engineering was my favorite.
The biggest take away for me was to test myself as often as possible. When trying to remeber something really try to do it on your own. Don’t be too quick with looking stuff up.
Rainer Storn suggests using a flashcard system to accomplish that. I’ve implemented one myself and I think it works great. I write the flashcards myself. This helps me filter out relevant parts of the material discussed in the lectures. I test myself the following day, then three days after that, a week later, a month later and a last time three months after that.
Using this system helps me remeber what was already discussed. By the time the exam comes around I can focus my energy and time on deepening the understanding and doing excercises instead of re-studying the material.
For exam preparation doing past exams is key. Print out as many as you can get your hands on. Try solving them in the time given and do it on your own. Take your time to analize your errors and make a list of your most frequent mistakes. Study up on what you didn’t understand. Activly try avoiding the mistakes on your list for the next exams. By the time the real exam is due, it’ll feel like a walk in the park – no stress.
Don’t make the mistake of thinking reading stuff or watching explanatory videos on youtube is studying. Trying to understand something takes time, don’t rush it. Even tho it might seem slow and painfuly hard I do think the most efficient way of studying is deep thinking.
Digital Minimalism
A few years ago I read Cal Newport’s great book on Digital Minimalism. In the book Newport talks about his philosophy of digital media usage. It made me rethink my own media usage and I decided to delete all my social media accounts. Probably one of the best decicions I’ve ever made.
The thing that really pushed me to this was me realising that my ability to focus and be truly present kept getting worse. While reading or meditating my mind kept drifting away. Focusing on longer tasks was difficult. I think that has changed a lot since then.
I like being offline. Not having the phone on me makes me feel less distracted and in a way more free. The obvious downside is not being reachable in case of emergencies. My solution was a second phone with a prepaid sim. Only the people close to me have the number and I only use the phone for calls.
This year during the winter break I took a week vacation alone and offline. Even tho I used the time for studying it truly was a very relaxing and enjoyable week. Free of worries and distraction.
Military
In switzerland there is a mandatory military service. I joined immediatly after my Matura as a Panzergrenadier Gefechtler. A mechanised infantry unit man specialized in CQB (close quarter battle) and anti tank warfare.
I learnt how to deal with stress and hardship – or more importantly, how not to. I saw the importance of having good comrades and how to be one – courtasies that go beyond being a good team player. Of course I’ve also aquired some skills that I hope will never have to be put to the test.
This time was very formative for me which is why I decided to write about it on here.
I enlisted at the first chance I had to not worry about it later on. At the time I just turned 18 years old and was still in school. I did good on the physical assesment, which is why I had the chance to chose the basic training of the Panzergrenadier Gefechtler. Being naive and arrogant I drasticly underestimated the difficulty of that training program. I liked being physicaly active and was very fit. The military service is mandatory for every male, so how hard could it be? Boy was I wrong.
On the first week my eyes were opend. I wasn’t used to getting shouted at by grown man that were trained to kill. They were unpredictable, mysteriously scary and seemed inhumane and cold. We didn’t know what to expect, what standards we had to meet and whether or not we’d randomly get punished, if we’d get woken up in the middle of the night or how long we had to wait for a chance to take a shower. Mixed with the fact that they could make us run till we throw up or pass out made for a perfect constant psychological terror.
As time moved on we got used to our new life. Our bodies adjusted to the sleep deprivation, stress and caloric restriction. We learnt to be okay with not knowing what’s coming next. Some of us were fast to adapt, some of us slower and some didn’t.
The effects this environment had on the minds were even greater. I completely disregarded my emotions. This helped me get through the time, but the people close to me observed with displeasure how I turned into a aphatic and cold-hearted machine. It took some time for my heart to warm up again.
The time managment was impressive. It felt like we did a week worth of work in a single morning. In a relativly short time period we learnt about first aid, hand-to-hand combat, diffrent weaponary systems, radio and comms, explosives, grenades, how to fight and move in urban spaces and much more. We learnt about our units motos Semper Fidelis – In Corde Veritas. The first part is used wordlwide in special forces and elite units, it could be translated to always loyal. The second part is loosly translated to true strenght comes from the truth within our hearts. I still remind myself of this motto. For me it means not lying to myself. Doing what feels right and not doing what doesn’t.
The Grenadierung was a kind of final excersise. If we pass, we earned the title of the Panzergrenadier. Our supperiors never told us what this excersise would be, how long it’ll last or even when it was going to be- once again psycho terror. I can’t talk about the details of the excersise but it was the first and only time I fell asleep while marching (a very interesting experience). Becoming a Panzergrenadier might not have been world changing or even very special, but at least for me it was the hardest and most painful thing I ever did. At the time I felt like I could move mountains, saying I was proud would have been an understatement. We recieved our units badge with the Grenadiers Bombe. For me the bomb stands for strenght, resilience and brotherhood.
