2020 Resolutions Revisited

As per usual, it is time to revisit my 2020 resolutions and see which ones I could stick with and which ones took unexpected turns.

1. Pass Inburgering! I have been living in the Netherlands for 3.5 years now and it is time to be able to read and speak Dutch at a ‘good-enough’ level.

I took all the required language exams for integration. I passed them all! I received a diploma which has way too many colors for an official government document but don’t get me wrong, I am not complaining. This means in August 2021 I will be able to apply for Dutch citizenship and/or permanent residency when I will have lived in the Netherlands for five years.

This being the good news, the main goal of this resolution was to be able to integrate to the Dutch society better, not just on paper. I have to admit my competency in the Dutch language is still quite rudimentary and no where near to being fluent. Moreover, I am not sure if I want to stay in NL for the long term, given I am not super happy with my job here and have no real commitments to the Netherlands other than my job, that means for the coming year, I will likely stop my Dutch studies and instead spare my time for other things I want to get better at but hey, that’s the subject of the next post: 2021 Resolutions.

Next two resolutions (number 2 and 3) are both about academic growth so I will evaluate them together.

2. Learn Information Theory I will follow Elements of Information Theory by Cover and Thomas chapter by chapter.

3. Revisit Complex Adaptive Systems

I started out with this one with the full enthusiasm of new years resolutions. After studying the first chapter of Elements of Information Theory however, my academic interests took a different turn.

Possibly due to the eruption of the Black Lives Matter protests in the US, my interest in state collapse got rekindled. So I shifted my focus to Peter Turchin’s books once again. I read Historical Dynamics followed by Revolution and Rebellion in the Early Modern World by Jack Goldstone. I applied for a postdoc in Vienna Complex Systems Institute to work with Professor Turchin which ended up not happening but I am trying to stay in close touch with him. In the meantime, I have started teaching myself TerminusDB which is a graph database. The SESHAT project of Prof. Turchin lives in TerminsDB so it is good to keep up with how it works but also graph databases are cool in and of themselves.

As for complex adaptive systems, Historical Dynamics covers certain topics such as chaotic behavior in the logistic map, agent based models and emergent phenomena that come out of ABM simulations etc. So there have been some connections but I didn’t move past the first couple of chapters of Thurner’s Introduction to the Theory of Complex Systems. One take away from the book is how at the edge of chaos, systems can basically ‘search’ for new parameters to adapt to new conditions. State collapse can be seen from this perspective. I have some notes about this on Historical Dynamics so worth revisiting that to write it out in more detail.

Overall, this hasn’t been a great success but I am content with what I learned. Still quite disappointed that I am not at a level I’d like to be in my understanding of Information Theory and Complex Systems.

4. Exercise This resolution has proved to be quite a frustrating one. I had some nice calisthenics goals I wanted to hit this year. However, my wrist injury turned out to be quite severe. The Dutch healthcare system is an absolute disaster so it took me about 6 months to be referred to a specialist who told me that I have tendinitis and the pain and discomfort in my wrist will never go away. I should never do calisthenics ever again and pick another sport like running.

So all my goals left unachieved. I am not a big believer in running as it is heavy on the knees - I can’t afford to have another joint injury - and doesn’t help build muscle which is key for health. So I tried to train legs and abs as much as I could but this has really been extremely frustrating. Chronic pain sucks!

5. Nutrition

No sugar and fruits save for berries

• No seed oils I totally removed seed oils from my life and this is probably one of the best things I have ever done for myself.
• 16 hours intermittent fasting everyday with the occasional OMAD on weekends, even some weekend long fasts every month or so. 16 hour fasts are now part of my daily routine. I have done quite many weekend long fasts too. Probably not every month but something like once every two months. I love the long fasts and with some lemon/salt water and coffee/tea, they are not nearly as demanding as they sound.
• Fatty fish once a week, lamb liver once a week This is also part of my weekly routine now. I don’t like the taste of liver much but with thin slices and generous use of butter to cook it with, it is not too bad. I still skip some weeks and go without liver so my liver consumption is more like once or twice a month. Not too shabby.
• Fermented veggies and kimchi Love anything fermented and have remembered to keep my fridge full of them. was good! what can I say.
• Keep experimenting with dairy, not sure how my body reacts to it. I only eat high fat yogurt and hard cheeses. Not sure if they cause inflammation. I find it hard to bring my protein and overall calorie intake to maintenance if I remove them from my diet so this is to be decided. I did go without dairy for a short while to test how I react to it but didn’t see a big difference. I still wake up somewhat congested and I wonder if it is due to my body reacting to it. Probably unlikely. I may try going without for a longer period this year and watch closer. But without dairy my breakfast becomes so dull as I rely on eggs and cheeses for breakfast. So unless I find a different protein source for breakfast I don’t plan on removing dairy from my diet unless I confirm my congestion is caused by dairy consumption.

6. Other Health Related Things

• Cold showers every time I shower Turned this into a habit. They even become quite enjoyable and refreshing after the initial shock.
• Sauna on some weekends. Covid didn’t allow for this unfortunately.
• Go to bed same time, wake up without an alarm clock. No phone in the bedroom. I tried this for a month, was quite successful yet I couldn’t keep it up. Sleep is still a - major problem for me. Cannot fall asleep for hours. This one flows over to 2021 resolutions.
• Investigate more the functions and effects of Resveratrol, NMN/NR and metformin. I keep taking resveratrol, NR and berberin (as a substitute for metformin which is prescription only). Honestly, I don’t see much of a direct benefit. Then again, they probably cause small changes that accumulate over time. I haven’t seen a negative effect either so I stick with them going into 2021.

7 Books To Read:

My plan was to read Turkish classics and Turkish modern literature. I didn’t even get to updating my list. I failed at this resolution, but here is the list I never got to (for completion sake):

• Saatleri Ayarlama Enstitusu - Tanpinar
• Gonul Bir Yeldegirmenidir Sevda Ogutur - Gurpinar
• Tutunamayanlar - Atay and maybe
• Kara Kitap - Pamuk.
  

Non of it happened. I started Tutunamayanlar and loved it’s entertaining language. Then life happened and I never got around finishing it.

Overall, there were some successes, some failures and some detours. Given there was a world wilde pandemic wreaking havoc, I will call this a partial success. More generally, I like setting these goals and building habits around them to get to them. I am late but will add a list for 2021 soon. Stay tuned!