I’m posting this again because I didn’t really get any satisfactory answers.
I always got INTP or ISTP on those free tests but I’m not sure.
• How old are you? What's your gender? Give us a general description of yourself.
I am a 27 years old trans man. I have been socially transitioning for nearly 4 years and medically transitioning for 7 months. I’ve uprooted my life in more ways than one and it’s by far been one of the best decisions I’ve made.
• Is there a medical diagnosis that may impact your mental stability somehow?
I have been struggling with depression and anxiety on and off since my adolescence and probably have ADHD or autism as well.
• Describe your upbringing. Did it have any kind of religious or structured influence? How did you respond to it?
I’m an only child. My mum’s always been something of a fire-cracker and has struggled with alcoholism and emotional abuse from her mum. She always had very high expectations of me and she’s probably part of the reason why I have such unreasonable expectations for myself. My dad is a lot more chill even if he doesn’t get me 100 percent of the time. Ultimately, I think they tried their best. My parents aren’t particularly religious but I went to a Catholic school until I was nine. I never really bought into it and it was a relatively chill school but it probably affected me in some way.
• What do you do as a job or as a career (if you have one)? Do you like it? Why or why not?
I honestly haven’t been able to hold down a stable job at all. After getting a pretty useless degree, my jobs have all been crappy and short-lived and I never really figured out what I wanted to do with my life. I wanted to be a writer or an artist but I have a near permanent case of creative burnout. I’m a part-time zookeeping student right now.
• If you had to spend an entire weekend by yourself, how would you feel? Would you feel lonely or refreshed?
It depends. If I’ve had a busy week I’ll welcome the peace and quiet. If things have been quiet I’ll get bored and a bit lonely.
• What kinds of activities do you prefer? Do you like, and are you good at sports? Do you enjoy any other outdoor or indoor activities?
I have a mixture of indoor and outdoor hobbies. I like gaming, especially RPGs, builders, and dumb shooters. I also enjoy card games and board games and I’ve recently started picking up chess. I like watching movies and anime, particularly horror and action. I used to read a lot of fiction but I find myself too distracted these days. If I do read it’s usually nonfiction about a topic I’m interested in or academic works.
In terms of outdoor hobbies, I’m only just opening up to them as I’ve been a particularly notorious shut-in for a lot of my life. I enjoy nature walks, working out, bouldering, gardening, and swimming. I’m not amazing at sports but I wouldn’t say I’m completely useless either. I prefer more solitary activities to team based ones. I have a bit of a competitive streak and exercise helps keep it in check.
• How curious are you? Do you have more ideas then you can execute? What are your curiosities about? What are your ideas about - is it environmental or conceptual, and can you please elaborate?
Very curious. I usually have a couple of ideas on the go but I wouldn’t say I’m overflowing with them. My curiosities are usually about the natural world, video game lore, and new hobbies I may want to take up.
• Would you enjoy taking on a leadership position? Do you think you would be good at it? What would your leadership style be?
I could be an okay leader if no one else was able to take up the position but I would be anxious about the responsibility and expectations others have of me. I’d like to think I’m firm but fair.
• Are you coordinated? Why do you feel as if you are or are not? Do you enjoy working with your hands in some form? Describe your activity?
I’m okay. I can match other people’s movements quite well. I can get a little bit careless and clumsy when I’m distracted or anxious though.
• Are you artistic? If yes, describe your art? If you are not particular artistic but can appreciate art please likewise describe what forums of art you enjoy. Please explain your answer.
Back when I used to draw, I drew a lot of tattoo designs and illustrations. Like something you’d find on an album cover or a book cover. I also drew many of the creatures and characters I wrote about. I’m have an eye for colour and I am drawn to art-deco and art-nouveau aesthetics.
• What's your opinion about the past, present, and future? How do you deal with them?
The past, while not always easy to revisit due to fuzzy memories or trauma, has led me to this very moment. I try to take every day as it comes and that has helped me a lot. I am nervous for the future as I have few concrete plans and life may throw me a curve ball. But I am also excited to see what has in store for me.
• How do you act when others request your help to do something (anything)? If you would decide to help them, why would you do so?
It depends who’s asking and what they want help with.
• Do you need logical consistency in your life?
Absolutely.
• How important is efficiency and productivity to you?
Efficiency is pretty good. Work smarter, not harder and all that. Productivity less so. I’m just happy when I get things done.
• Do you control others, even if indirectly? How and why do you do that?
Not really. Unless they are negatively impacting me or other people I prefer to leave people to their own devices.
• What are your hobbies? Why do you like them?
Pretty sure I already answered this question.
• What is your learning style? What kind of learning environments do you struggle with most? Why do you like/struggle with these learning styles? Do you prefer classes involving memorization, logic, creativity, or your physical senses?
I’m a visual and hands-on learner. I suck at internalising verbal instruction. I despise overly rigid learning environments so I struggled a lot in school. I enjoy learning at my own pace and by going out and doing things first-hand.
• How good are you at strategizing? Do you easily break up projects into manageable tasks? Or do you have a tendency to wing projects and improvise as you go?
Improvise but I try to make a basic structure that I may or may not deviate from.
• What are your aspirations in life, professionally and personally?
To be the best version of myself I can be and live the most fulfilling and rich life I can.
• What are your fears? What makes you uncomfortable? What do you hate? Why?
My two biggest fears are quite abstract and they are being aimless and being trapped. I’m also mildly agoraphobic and afraid of wasps. I hate wilful ignorance and bigotry, especially when those things actively make the world a worse place for everyone.
• What do the "highs" in your life look like?
I feel alive, happy, and a zest for life. I feel like I’m running on a motor and that I can do anything I want.
• What do the "lows" in your life look like?
When I feel low, I get in a funk and it’s very hard to get out. I literally find it impossible to relax unless someone is there to get me out of my head. If I’m not careful I can get isolated. And that’s when I start to spiral.
• How attached are you to reality? Do you daydream often, or do you pay attention to what's around you? If you do daydream, are you aware of your surroundings while you do so?
Sometimes I let my mind wander, particularly when I’m listening to music. It doesn’t take much to bring me back to reality though.
• Imagine you are alone in a blank, empty room. There is nothing for you to do and no one to talk to. What do you think about?
I’d probably go a bit mad and try to devise an escape plan.
• How long do you take to make an important decision? And do you change your mind once you've made it?
I like to take my time to weigh out the pros and cons. I make stupid decisions when I’m rushed. I may change my mind if circumstances change and it’s not going to inconvenience me too much.
• How long do you take to process your emotions? How important are emotions in your life?
A long time. My emotions are a mess and I barely know what I am feeling half the time. Journaling has helped me make sense of them and processing them to a degree.
• Do you ever catch yourself agreeing with others just to appease them and keep the conversation going? How often? Why?
Not really. I either stay quiet or try to disagree with them in a productive way depending on how bold I’m feeling at the time.
• Do you break rules often? Do you think authority should be challenged, or that they know better? If you do break rules, why?
I follow rules if they are there for a good reason. Like waiting in line. If they’re stupid rules I have less qualms about breaking them.

To preface this, I'm pretty new to the concept of neurodivergence and am not currently able to talk to professionals to figure things out/get a diagnosis. But I've noticed I have a lot of interesting behaviors and generally feel like a very strange person so I was wondering if this might be a neurodivergent thing. Sorry this is going to be a jumbled post because I don't really know where to start, but if anyone reading relates to this (which idk this is a post all about myself sorry 😭 so this is probably way too specific) but if anyone has any insight I would love to hear!
First of all the way I feel emotions seems to be a lot more detached rather than immediate, like my emotions go through a separate processing before I can really feel them. I always relate emotions in my immediate personal life to some abstract narrative of that emotion in order for me to feel it. For example if I feel like a social interaction didn't go well, it automatically conjures a whole narrative about what it means to isolated, human, things I've read from philosophy, ways that I might express my feelings of loneliness through writing (one of my hobbies). I don't know if I'm just out of touch but I am very withdrawn a lot and always tying things back to these abstract ideas in my head and trying to advance/develop my understanding of them. Sometimes if someone makes me upset I distance myself by thinking that's an interesting experience I wonder how ElegantNoodle will react to this and what that says about me and other people involved.
Another thing I've noticed is that because I am always thinking in the abstract it makes it very difficult to relate and form concrete relationships with others. I never realized it before but I think I've been mimicking others' behaviors my entire life, or at least it feels that way because I feel like I am too aware of my behaviors that I can't act 'normally'/uninhibited. So I tend to only really enjoy friendships which are really serious and we can have interesting/deep or vulnerable convos, and I can't really ever be unserious. I tend to be really principled in my actions and treat others according to those principles, but those principles don't really tell me how to act in everyday behaviors like joking around and less serious stuff like that. Because of this, I don't really understand how to act in some contexts like professional environments, friendships, etc unless I can fully understand which role and set of behaviors to align myself with.
Also sorry this is really disorganized but here's a list of other interesting behaviors that I've noticed that I've heard might be related to neurodivergence:

• I don't understand how to really have hobbies/interests. I am constantly envisioning this abstract version of who I want to be, but the concrete actions I take in the moment to pursue hobbies feel overwhelming and stressful, like they aren't contributing meaningfully to this envisioned self.
• I am very bad with eye contact, my eyes wander and dart around a lot because that helps me form thoughts. When I walk around in public I find it really hard to not dart my eyes around and have to be really aware of my surroundings (which sucks cause I make accidental eye contact with so many people haha)
• I think I have face blindness because it takes conscious effort to try to construct a person's face from memory. And when I see someone who kind of resembles a person I know, I can get confused and am not sure if it's really them or not. I might have mild aphantasia because it takes me a lot of effort to 'see' real life things on demand. When I read/think though I can think in images but they're not realistic images but more like elements of an image/kind of like how art depicts real life but isn't actually realistic
• I have a very fluid sense of self, would consider myself to be pretty self aware since I'm always thinking about who I am. But then every few weeks my understanding of myself updates and I realize that my previous beliefs about myself and the world are limited/incorrect

Before we begin, do note that I am restricting myself in only using native Tagalog words.
This is so that I can comfortably use the Tagalog circumfix "ka-____-an" which turns a root word into an abstract noun; showcasing the "concept" part of the Paths.
In some translations. I will try and explain the reasoning behind my choices except for the ones that are straightforward at the end.
I'm just basically doing this because I thought it would be interesting to use the circumfix ka-___-an to have some unity to the naming conventions.
Here it is:
The Abundance –> Kasanàan
The Elation –> Katuwâan
The Harmony –> Kamayawán
The Order –> Kasunúran
The Remembrance –> Kagunitaán
The Equilibrium –> Kapantayan
The Nihility –> Kawalâan
The Beauty –> Kagandahan
The Hunt –> Katugisán
The Permanence –> Kalagián
The Enigmata –> Kabugtungan
The Destruction –> Kawasakán
The Finality –> Kawakasan
The Erudition –> Katalisikan
The Enigmata –> Kabugtungan
The Voracity –> Kasibaán
The Preservation –> Kasatilihán
The Propagation –> Kalaganapán o Kayabungán
The Trailblaze –> Kaagtasan o Kabagtasan
The Abundance –> Kasanàan
This word means Abundance with the association of hell. I used this word because of this Reddit comment that made it perfect as the translation.
It also has a similar pronunciation of the word for just abundance (kasaganahan) with both having similar syllables except for "ga" and having the stress at the penultimate syllable.
The Elation –> Katuwâan
This one might be self-explanatory as the root word just translate to "joy" but I picked this out of the other synonyms for "happy" in Tagalog because its proto-austronesian meaning is "luck". So, yes. I picked that one because of that one Aventurine conversation.
The Harmony –> Kamayawán
I struggled with this one because I kept trying to look for a word that has the "musical" and "oneness" connotation of the original word.
I kept trying to look for a word that's commonly used but then gave up and just ask my mom if she has an idea and that's where the word "mayaw" came from.
She said it means getting along with others. So I check an online Tagalog dictionary and it states:
má·yaw adjective (old tagalog)
1.voices are one or have harmony It also gained a new meaning in the Maugnayin Science Dictionary Filipino-English as the word for "cosmos".
The Order –> Kasunúran
This one I'm entirely not confident on; as it's hard to find a word that's narrow in meaning, but still similar, to the word I picked for Harmony.
I'm unsuccessful so I just picked the word for " to follow (sunód)" because if you used that with the "ka-___-an" circumfix it has the connotation of a list of "orders" to follow.
The Remembrance –> Kagunitaán
This one I picked instead of the more common word for "memory (ala-ala)" because it has a broader meaning and much shorter than ala-ala.
The Equilibrium –> Kapantayan
The root word just mean equal or fair (pantáy).
The Nihility –> Kawalâan
I didn't used the shortened "Kawalán", even though they have the same root word for "nothing (walâ)", because more people associate that with the void or space. Also it makes it sound more like an abstract word than Kawalán.
The Beauty –> Kagandahan
The root word just means beauty (gandá).
The Hunt –> Katugisán
The root word just means hunt (tugis).
The Permanence –> Kalagián
The root word means "always (lagì)". I'm iffy about this one as it doesn't have the same weight for me as Permanence. I could also use the word for before (dati) since according to dictionaries its synonym with permanent, I think? But honestly I prefer Kalagián more than the other one.
The Destruction –> Kawasakán
I picked this word because I want it to be similar to the word that I picked for Finality. Since it was, I think, mentioned in the game that The Destruction will get absorbed to The Finality because the latter is more broader in concept.
The Finality –> Kawakasan
Same explanation as The Destruction. Are the two words even cognate/doublet with each other?
The Erudition –> Katalisikan
I used this word instead of the word for knowledge (dunong) or intellect (talino) because the word "talisik" means " a knowledge that's obtained from rigorous study and also the closest to the word "erudite (matalisik)". Which best describes the followers of Nous.
The Enigmata –> Kabugtungan
I have to actually look up the etymology of the word Enigmata to find a suitable translation for it. It means "to speak in riddles" which pairs up nicely to the Tagalog word for "riddle (bugtóng)".
The Voracity –> Kasibaán
For this one I just search about the Tagalog version of the seven deadly sins and picked the word for gluttony.
The Preservation –> Kasatilihán
I got the word (satili) from the word for preserve (panatili). I think the root word " tili " is not used in Tagalog anymore that's why it always has an affix when used in a sentence. Even if the word " tili " means a "state of permanency" the way it's derived terms used it to mean preserve is still possible since it is a verb:
Wiktionary States that: the prefix sa- is used to denote a method or means to a purpose, ‎sa- + ‎puso (“heart”) → ‎sapuso (“act of having put to heart”)
The Propagation –> Kalaganapán o Kayabungán
The word "laganap" means spreaded-out.
Since the word Propagation is linked to agriculture, another great translation is the word for "thriving; abundant growth; foliage; plentiful foliage (yabong)"
The Trailblaze –> Kaagtasan o Kabagtasan
This is the one I struggled the most as I keep thinking of a word that would fit the context of the game.
Since I can't just take the word "trail + blaze" and word-for-word translate it as that would be clunky. I opted for the other original name in Chinese in the Aeon wiki page.
When I search for the individual meaning of the Chinese characters "开拓" I got was "to open or break". Which tells me nothing.
I, then, thought of looking for other English words that are close to the meaning of Trailblaze. That's where I got the word "Pathfinding" and then google the Tagalog word for it which is "aktas" meaning "to open or to make a new path". Which is perfect and I just chose the other pronunciation of it "agtas" because it's close to the word "bagtas (to traverse)".

I find it strange that in almost all advices for learning people put large emphasis on vocabulary like nouns adjective and verbs. Then they talk about immersion and comprehensible inputs. Grammar is mentioned as one of first tools, or another method is to try teach beginner sentences first. But it is really hard to find anything about connectives. They are unsung "heroes" of the language. In English there are words like first,but,therfore,firstly and so on. After I accidently stumbled at them, I did targeted study to acquire them. It improved my immersion quality greatly. Is there a reason for it to be so hard to find? Or maybe I was unlucky to miss this topic and it is known... Sorry if this question was asked previously, i couldn't find it.
Edit: So i read some comments and decided to answer some of them. I am not proficient in grammar related words in any language (including my native one) so I'll specify my mistakes and goal of this post. 1. Grammar is a way language correctly combines meanings of single words into a whole. What I asked was kind of wrong then. With incorrect understanding of definition I asked something like "why people say pets are cute, but don't say a lot about nice cats". Kind of embarassing 2. Connective was something I translated from polish, but it seems english created separate words for it. What i meant was things like: 1.And 2.therfore 3.finnaly 4.then 5.albeit 6.but 7.because 8.anyway 9.so on. Words that don't mean anything specific like nouns or verbs, but describe abstract concept like relationship between different words or sentences.

Well, Axiom Verge is eery, or, in other words, there is nothing concrete in its labyrinthine world. To me, everything was abstract and uncanny. This made me feel like a stranger in this dimension, whom I actually were - seeking forms and shapes where they never should have been. The music was contributing to this impression with its outlandish rhythm. At one location, it begins with a humanish voice in a crescendo, making you inwardly shudder.
How should I describe the enemies, the locations, the bosses? Like something abstract, too. Unfathomable even. Albeit they would sometimes arise an association - say, with marine life, or with an alien desert. And then there were those colossal structures - Rusalki, they were called. And that weird, giant steel-made moving head. Something grim about it all.
Yet these are only subjective impressions. Frankly, Axiom Verge felt off-putting at first - but then I grew accustomed to all its quirkiness and came to appreciate it. From objective point of view, this metroidvania is almost flawless. The world is captivating to explore, and with every new ability, you might come back and visit previously inaccessible locations. Some of them are tricky as hell. But the reward is due, and you are somehow driven to explore every uncompleted corner in your reach. Honestly, I haven't felt such motivation in other games. And the world is diverse - locations are not similar to each other, and they are even dissected in sub-locations. There isn't a proper fast-travel system - but you don't need it either.
I liked the weapon system. You find new guns during your organic progression or exploring some nooks. Every weapon has its pros and cons, they all have their use against certain types of enemies. The bosses are not that hard, but will anyway pose a challenge and are fun to beat.
Oh, and the game is full of glitches - intentional glitches. They are part of the core mechanics. You have to pass through them, or even use them for your favor. You may run into the wall and glitch, but... nothing is really done without a reason. At one instance, you glitch yourself.
Overall, I liked it very much, but since I have run out of adjectives, I'd simply say it was very interesting. It's really worth playing. A shame it has got only 5 thousand Steam reviews.
P.S. Frankly, I not really grasped the plot, and I will have to watch a video on it or something. My bad - should have been more attentive. But I still sensed that I was in a ruined world, in an epicenter of a battle for the fate of it all, that I were a chosen one.

Unveiling Object-Oriented Programming: The Pillar of Modern Software Development

In the realm of software development, where complexity often reigns supreme, Object-Oriented Programming (OOP) stands tall as a guiding paradigm, offering structure, modularity, and scalability. Its inception, dating back to the 1960s and 70s, marked a pivotal moment in the evolution of programming methodologies. Since then, OOP has become a cornerstone of modern software engineering, empowering developers to craft robust, reusable, and maintainable codebases.

Understanding the Essence of Object-Oriented Programming:

At its core, Object-Oriented Programming revolves around the concept of objects, which encapsulate both data and behavior. These objects are the building blocks of an OOP system, representing real-world entities, such as people, cars, or bank accounts. By encapsulating data within objects, OOP fosters a modular approach to software design, wherein complex systems can be broken down into smaller, more manageable components.
The Four Pillars of OOP:
Object-Oriented Programming is underpinned by four fundamental principles, often referred to as the "four pillars" of OOP:
Encapsulation: Encapsulation involves bundling data and methods that operate on that data into a single unit, i.e., an object. This shields the internal state of an object from external interference, promoting information hiding and abstraction. Encapsulation facilitates the creation of robust and maintainable codebases by limiting direct access to an object's internal workings and providing well-defined interfaces for interacting with it.
Inheritance: Inheritance enables the creation of new classes (objects) based on existing ones, thereby promoting code reuse and hierarchical organization. Inheritance allows subclasses to inherit attributes and behaviors from their parent classes, fostering a hierarchical relationship among classes. This not only reduces code duplication but also enhances extensibility, as new classes can be created by extending or modifying existing ones.
Polymorphism: Polymorphism, derived from the Greek words "poly" (many) and "morph" (form), refers to the ability of objects to exhibit different behaviors based on their types or classes. In essence, polymorphism allows objects of different classes to be treated uniformly through a common interface. This promotes flexibility and modularity, as it enables developers to write code that can operate on objects of multiple types without explicitly knowing their exact classes.
Abstraction: Abstraction involves modeling complex real-world entities as simplified, idealized representations within a software system. By focusing on essential attributes and behaviors while hiding irrelevant details, abstraction enables developers to manage complexity and enhance clarity. Abstraction is achieved through the use of abstract classes, interfaces, and other mechanisms that define a blueprint for creating concrete implementations.

Benefits of Object-Oriented Programming

The adoption of Object-Oriented Programming brings forth a multitude of benefits, including:
Modularity: OOP facilitates modular design, allowing developers to break down complex systems into smaller, interconnected modules (objects). This modular structure enhances code organization, maintenance, and reuse.
Scalability: Object-Oriented Programming promotes scalability by enabling developers to extend and modify existing code without disrupting the overall system. Through inheritance and polymorphism, new features can be added or existing ones can be modified with minimal impact on the rest of the codebase.
Code Reusability: OOP encourages code reusability through inheritance and composition, wherein common functionalities can be encapsulated within reusable components (classes). This reduces redundancy, enhances productivity, and fosters the development of libraries and frameworks.
Maintainability: By promoting encapsulation and abstraction, OOP facilitates code maintenance and evolution. Changes to one part of the codebase can be isolated and localized, minimizing the risk of unintended side effects and making it easier to understand and modify the code over time.

Conclusion

Object-Oriented Programming stands as a testament to the power of abstraction, encapsulation, inheritance, and polymorphism in software engineering. Its principles have revolutionized the way developers conceptualize, design, and build software systems, paving the way for scalable, maintainable, and extensible applications. As technology continues to evolve, OOP remains a timeless paradigm, guiding developers on their quest to craft elegant and efficient software solutions.

From the beginning of my journey and up until now, i've gotten many signs, one of them being these visions. Based on my own experiences and interpretations, these visions, what me might call 'visions from beyond', 'Astral/5D visions' or emotional upgrades come only at designated times and, from my experience, they give me a form of gnosis and inner-knowing about things, in my case this would be in relationship to my twin flame journey. There are many different kinds of these visions, we might call them layers or planes with some being more exalted than others. They feel profoundly beatiful, and transcendent. They only come during major events and updates along the twin flame journey. If I were to describe it, I would use the words: transcendent, celestial, exotic, profound, and almost *futuristic* or posessing a 'leading edge' quality. Futuristic is obviously a limited and concrete word which cannot do these things justice, as we're dealing with emotions and the *abstract*. These visions usually contain vague images of things like of being at a beautiful restaurant with my twin flame or traveling the world. I could cry, writhe, and revel, to these images and feelings. What i'm about to say is something I would consider to me very keynote: through these visions, the 'eternal' or 'spiritual' nature of this relationship becomes obvious to me. Has anyone experienced this? If so, do you guys actually feel like that when you're with your twin flame? 🪐☄️👁️

I'm trying to find out if i'm a Ne or a Se user
Ne I'm very detached from my environment. I often miss things that happen around me . I don't observe . I can be very focused on my thoughts in my own fantesie world, and my thoughts are very creative deep, and I often think out of the box I like the abstract side and the deeper side of certain things and i"m very slow to catch things with my 5 senses and i'm good at making different connections between things/ideas. I hate details and often forget where I have placed my stuff in the physical world. I like made-up scenarios and wat if cases. And I often answer it depends on questions And when i'm in my head thinking It's very hard to snap out of it, and I'm like this 89% of the time. And
Se I like to analyze things with my 5 sense and explore stuff, but I take my time to get things a lot of time I love some sport but hate the theoretical side of spots. I always think in the moment not in the future or the past I don't like to mutch choices. I'm materialistic, and I'm an adrenaline seeker and hedonistic, and I'm very impulsive . Even if I like abstract things, I have an easier time with concrete stuff, I believe in facts more easily than theories, and I like using tools and my body a lot. I can be very impulsive. And I often answer it depends on questions but I don't like answering that way I like mutch more questions I answer with yes or no and I also like to resive yes or no to my questions because I like it when I have a clear answer and to have a clear conclusion voor examples I don't like the description of things but to see it with my own eyes and i'm very bad at hypothetical answer and I have a need for immediate gratification
You guys are the big bos of using Ne and also Ti user i'm a Ti user so I thought you could help me?

I'm trying to find out if i'm a Ne or a Se user
Ne I'm very detached from my environment. I often miss things that happen around me . I don't observe . I can be very focused on my thoughts in my own fantesie world, and my thoughts are very creative deep, and I often think out of the box I like the abstract side and the deeper side of certain things and i"m very slow to catch things with my 5 senses and i'm good at making different connections between things/ideas. I hate details and often forget where I have placed my stuff in the physical world. I like made-up scenarios and wat if cases. And I often answer it depends on questions And when i'm in my head thinking It's very hard to snap out of it, and I'm like this 89% of the time. And
Se I like to analyze things with my 5 sense and explore stuff, but I take my time to get things a lot of time I love some sport but hate the theoretical side of spots. I always think in the moment not in the future or the past I don't like to mutch choices. I'm materialistic, and I'm an adrenaline seeker and hedonistic, and I'm very impulsive . Even if I like abstract things, I have an easier time with concrete stuff, I believe in facts more easily than theories, and I like using tools and my body a lot. I can be very impulsive. And I often answer it depends on questions but I don't like answering that way I like mutch more questions I answer with yes or no and I also like to resive yes or no to my questions because I like it when I have a clear answer and to have a clear conclusion voor examples I don't like the description of things but to see it with my own eyes and i'm very bad at hypothetical answer and I have a need for immediate gratification
You guys are the big bos of using Se and also Ti user i'm a Ti user so I thought you could help me?

As someone who teaches concrete skills (I'm a language teacher, in case anyone wondered), the coaching industry's obsession with "mIndSeTt" weirded me out from the get-go.
I thought "what IS it with those people and their constant rambling about MindSEt, when most of them don't even have psych degrees?! Hell, the psychologists I know don't talk about it half as much as the 'coaches.'"
Eventually, it dawned on me: it's the perfect grift. Think about it:
1. they don't have to provide anything concrete.
People like me need to, you know...be fluent in the languages we teach, and competent teachers. We need a CV that demonstrates a track record of getting students from A to B2. If you're a personal trainer, you need to demonstrate you can get, and have gotten, people to lose X weight, improve Y metric of their fitness.
And so on; most professions need real skills and potentially even real qualifications beyond "shameless self-promotion" and "the ability to memorize and regurgitate feelgoodsy fortune-cookie platitudes". Pretty much only in "coaching" can any rando with zero proof of concept saunter in and decide to call themselves a pro or "expert". So it makes sense that it attracts people with that magical thinking / get-rich-quick personality style, who think they've discovered the magic loophole to print free money. You know...
1. call yourself "coach" or "expert"
2. charge a buttload for a bit of fortune-cookie platitudes and glorified motivational speaking
3. blame the clients' "miNDsETt" when they don't get the promised results
4. PROFIT!
2. it builds in a failsafe.
You didn't get the results they promised? Well, that must be your MiiinDSSeTt. After all, you 'know' it's 99% MIndSet - they groomed you to believe this, well before you even bought. And since MiNdSeYuTT is an unfalsifiable claim, it gives them a convenient way out; after all, it's pretty hard to conclusively prove it wasn't your MUyYIndSYEt that got in the way of your success. There is no Mindset-O-Meter we can use to conclusively prove what they did or didn't upgrade or shift.
It's about as hard as conclusively proving it wasn't the Flying Spaghetti Monster, or Karma, or any other invisible boogeyman. So, party time for the "coaches"! They get to keep selling abstract fluff, blame the customer when it doesn't work, and laugh all the way to the bank.
...That's the dream, at least. If you've been around those people you know that it's mostly wishful thinking because most of them are broke and just desperately hoping they can fake it 'till they make it. Another reason to keep pushing the "mindset" angle: they want to feel like they've got a fighting chance despite their lack of real skills, or qualifications, or proof of concept.
That's my armchair diagnosis. What's your experience with that obsession?

Hey everyone!
First of all, I sought approval from the moderators to post this announcement and they gave their consent, so thank you very much for allowing me to share this with you all!
I just wanted to share some exciting news for anyone involved in learning or teaching English as a Second Language (ESL). UsingEnglish.com, a leading resource for English language learners and teachers, has recently launched a brand-new section dedicated to ESL worksheets and printables! 🎉
You can check it out here: https://www.usingenglish.com/handouts/
This new section is packed with printable worksheets that cover all sorts of topics, from grammar and vocabulary to pronunciation and practical English usage. Whether you're teaching beginners or an advanced learners, there's something here for you.
Here's what I think makes this new section so great:

• Launching with 518 ESL Worksheets: These worksheets were painstakingly written by Richard Flynn, co-founder of UsingEnglish.com, who sadly passed away in February. This is a fitting tribute to him and a great example of some of his work that’s available on this site.
• A Diverse Range of Topics: Whether it's grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation, or practical English usage, our worksheets cover the essential skills needed for effective communication in English.
• Ease of Navigation: The section is organised to help you find exactly what you need quickly, whether looking for something specific or browsing for inspiration.
• Presented as Printable PDFs: Each worksheet is available as a PDF for convenient printing, perfect for classroom activities or home practice.
• Corresponding Online Quizzes: Every worksheet is also presented as an online quiz, meaning that learners can practise their skills interactively and get immediate feedback, making the learning process even more effective and engaging.
• Corresponding Answer Sheets: To enhance the learning and teaching experience, every worksheet comes with a PDF answer sheet - ideal for self-checking or facilitating classroom discussions.
• Free Access: True to our commitment to the ESL community, these invaluable resources are offered completely free of charge.

We are excited to launch the ESL Worksheets section. We look forward to it continuing to grow and become an indispensable tool for English language learners and educators worldwide (if you like what you see, please consider helping us by sharing it with interested friends and colleagues).
So, if you're an ESL teacher looking for new materials for your students, head over to https://www.usingenglish.com/handouts/ and explore this new section. It's live now and ready for you to dive in!
Happy teaching!

I recently had a 12-day stay in a psychiatric ward at a nearby hospital for suicidal thoughts and actions. After I got out, I requested my medical records back, and got a 200+ page document with everything about my stay. On the front it had a list of my diagnoses. They were all to be expected, except it said I had Autistic disorder F84.0.
I have never been tested for autism. I’ve never been diagnosed with autism. While I was at the hospital, they never spoke to me about autism. The document said I had concrete and perseverant thinking, needed physical objects to calm anxiety, and could not understand abstract concepts or general suggestions for mental health (like “think positively”). The concrete thinking was mentioned in most of the daily notes taken about me. They also mentioned that I said I believe I will always have suicidal thoughts since I’ve had them since I was a child. This is true for many, is it not?
I’m not sure that I have autism. I’m not sure this is a legitimate diagnosis. Can hospitals diagnose you with a neurotype that you haven’t been formally tested for? I’m not sure I want this on my medical record forever.
I’m also an engineer, so I guess I wouldn’t be the first. H a h a.
Please send advice if you have read this. This is really a shock for me.

In the realm of nature, nothing quite captures the awe-inspiring force of lightning. Even in our modern-day age, with all our wonders and technologies, witnessing a lightning strike and hearing its thunderous sound can’t help but leave us with a sense of awe and respect for the power of the natural world.
Among the Cherokee, a special kind of respect was paid to lightning. The burnt wood from trees struck by lightning was sought after by shamans. The wood would be buried in soil to ensure a healthy crop and warriors were rubbed with the charred wood for strength, effectively being “charged with bolts of sacred fire”.
To the Cherokee and other groups, lightning was a dramatic display from the spiritual realm, and served as a reminder of the spiritual forces that pervade the natural world and influence human life.
Interestingly, the branching pattern observed in lightning strikes is mirrored across various natural phenomena in our world, with one of the most recognizable patterns being the network of branches in trees.
This striking similarity stems from a shared principle of growth and movement: both the electric charge of lightning and the tree limb navigate from a point of lower potential to one of higher potential, albeit in opposite directions—lightning moves from a high potential charge to a lower one, while a tree limb grows towards a zone with low potential, in this case, a shaded area, towards a zone of greater potential, or sunlight exposure.
This observation highlights a universal pattern of progression; each decision branching out like the limbs of a tree or the forks of a lightning bolt. Perhaps this progression is archetypal, instilled by the Logos as a concept, which is why it is so prevalent. When perceived from a broader perspective, our lives too unfold in a similar branching design, marked by choices and diverging paths that closely resemble the intricate patterns seen in trees and lightning.
This image of a tree and lighting serves to demonstrate that the realm we inhabit is full of metaphors pointing toward higher concepts. Matter is, as the author Walter Russel wrote, “merely the record of ideas and not the ideas themselves”.
Material objects are the shadow of a greater concept which is more nebulous and abstract. The idea reigns supreme, yet its manifestation is physical form. For instance, before we create anything in the physical, it begins first as an idea in the imagination.
Within the imagination, the concept is still nebulous and it has the opportunity to take many forms. It is not yet concrete and “real”. It is still in “potential”.
Once the concept is acted upon, and work is done to bring it into form, then suddenly it has a real-world impact. It is “real”. Yet, at the same time, it’s not real. It’s only the shadow of the concept itself.
This brings up an interesting question: which is superior? The idea or the form based on the idea?
Some would suggest that the point of art, for instance, is to convey concepts. Observing a masterpiece allows us to converse with concepts of a higher order, transcending the physicality of the art piece itself. It matters not what medium the art takes, what matters is the concept that is being conveyed.
This dynamic interplay between the ethereal and the tangible showcases how higher ideas manifest and how these manifestations, in turn, draw us closer to the divine.
As the author and occultist David Goddard writes in his book Tree of Sapphires,
“By the penetrative observations of the Microcosm, you receive intimations of the Macrocosm”.
Perhaps no spiritual tradition encapsulates this concept more distinctly than Qabalah.
Qabalah is a form of Jewish mysticism aimed at understanding the nature of God and the universe. It offers a framework for comprehending the relationships between the Divine, the cosmos, and humanity through a system of ten spheres (Sephiroth) and 22 paths that represent different aspects and levels of consciousness and reality.
The system is visually represented by the Tree of Life, which serves as a map illustrating how the Infinite One, or Ain Sof, interacts with the finite world. Its emanations are called Sephiroth, which are attributes or aspects of the Infinite One.
Holistically, the Tree of Life can be viewed as the process through which the Infinite One differentiates itself into physical reality, metaphorically representing the transition from 0 to 1. It also represents the path back towards unity, from the lower to the higher.
As David Goodard writes,
“It is the lighting flash from Kether at the top of the tree, down to Malkuth that shows the path of involution, or the One Life-Power descending, plane by plane, veiling itself in denser vibratory states.
The sequence of the lighting flash from Malkuth ascending to Kether is the way of evolution, termed the Path of the Return.”
It is the Path of the Return that we will be discussing - starting with the very last sphere on the tree: Malkuth
Malkuth
The Tree of Life is a visual metaphor for how the One differentiates itself into many. One way to study the tree is to see it as a system of triangles made up of various interconnected paths. These paths are described as Activating, Formative and Balancing.
The author Robert Wang in his book The Qabalistic Tarot writes,
“...each of the key triangles on the Tree refers to one part of the Soul: The Supernal Triangle is the Supreme Spiritual Self, the Ethical Triangle is the Higher Self, and the Astral Triangle is the Personality in incarnation.”
In addition, he writes “the core structure of each part of the Self is composed of three aspects, an Activating (Yod-Fire), a Formative (Heh-Water) and an energy which is Balancing (Vau-Air)”
Therefore, each sphere works with the other to form the whole. The only exception is the final sphere, Malkuth. Malkuth contains all three aspects and includes a fourth: “Heh” or “Earth”. Yod Heh Vau Heh, also known as the Tetragrammaton, or the “unprounceable name of God”. Malkuth is the solidified end result of the actions of the Yod Heh and Vau.
You might also liken these forces to the Hegelian dialectic of Thesis, Antithesis, and Synthesis.
The forces can also be thought of states of consciousness.
The Tree of Life is also divided into three Pillars. The left Pillar are considered “active” forces and the spheres on the right side of the Pillar are considered “formative” or “passive” forces. Within the Middle are the equalibrating forces, considered consciousness itself by Qabalaist.
To visualize this better, think of music played from a guitar. The string is the formative, or passive force, the tension and vibration of the string is the active force, yet without the balancing force of the musician, no music could be created. You would just have noise.
We should regonize that there is no true beginning and no true “end”. When one looks at the Tree, both the bottom, Malkuth, and the top, Kether are both the beginning and the end. The top of the Tree contains the sphere known as Ain Soph, which is God prior to any self-manifestation, existing in no-thing, or what Ra refers to “Intelligent Infinity”.
Therefore, as the light moves further from Kether, it gradually gets stepped down into lower and lower vibrations, filtered through the activating, formative and balancing forces of each triangle.
Malkuth is denest realm on the tree, the “final” destination of the light from the One. It is the what we call the physical universe, the world of form.
In the book The Mystical Qabalah, the author and mystic Dion Fortune writes this about Malkuth,
“It is the formative, concreting function of Malkuth which finally renders tangible and definite what was, upon the higher planes, intangible and indefinite, and this is its great service to manifestation and its characteristic power.”
Within Malkuth, the tangible is precise, and the abstract takes a backseat. Forms here acquire a defined outline, in contrast to the superior spheres where the form is fluid and undefined.
Malkuth is the grounding point of the Divine’s will, where the idea finally becomes manifest.
However, the process of grounding this energy requires the use of channels and links.
Dion Fortune also writes,
“The whole problem of Malkuth is a problem of channels and connecting links. The rest of the work is done by the mind on the subtler planes; the real difficulty lies in the transition from the subtle to the dense, for the subtle is so ill-equipped to work on the dense. This transition is effected by means of the magnetism of living things, whether organic or inorganic.”
The physical, being a dense realm, can be difficult to break through without the appropriate channels and magnetism of beings and objects existing in this realm.
Being immersed in matter, it can be easy to think that we are cut off from the Divine. And, while it can be difficult to hear at times, the subtle calling of Spirit is always transmitting information.
As we work on clearing the rocks and thorns that block the heart, it becomes easier to hear the call of Spirit and to form that connection to the higher realms.
The more we form the connection and listen to the higher callings of Spirit, the greater impact Spirit can have in Malkuth.
The conduit for this connection is, of course, you. All of us have the potential to be channels for the Divine. In fact, as wanderers, this is perhaps the main reason for incarnating on this planet.
To act as that grounding point for the Divine. This is the natural role of humanity. To be the embodiment of Spirit in the physical realm of Malkuth.
This is the act of being a co-creator of the Logos.
Recall that each Logos is responsible for setting up the archetypal framework of a particular system. Everything materializing in Malkuth is a direct offspring of these archetypical blueprints.
Take, for example, the form of the galaxy. Our galaxy adopts a "spiral" configuration which one can see throughout the physical universe. This shape happens to resonate deeply with narrative structures, notably the "Hero's Journey"—a seemingly universal storytelling structure that is found in almost all myths told across cultures and time.
It can be argued that the reason this storytelling structure is so universal is because it is archetypal. That is, it is not learned, but rather inherent in all of us, accessible by those sensitive enough to perceive within the Deep Mind.
The narrative arc of the hero's journey unfolds as follows: The protagonist starts with a certain limitation, be it a belief system or another type of restraint. Eventually, the call to adventure beckons, leading them to accept this quest.
This journey propels them through trials and tribulations, adversity, and shadowy depths, facilitating their growth and leading to the acquisition of vital wisdom. After triumphing over these challenges, the hero returns, ready to embark on a new cycle, equipped with newfound insights.
This narrative framework underscores the principle of continual growth. To evolve spiritually, one must journey beyond the familiar, confront their inner darkness, and from this confrontation, arise, reborn. However, like in real life, the process is never-ending.
If one were to conceptualize this structure visually, it would mirror the form of a spiral.
Since the spiral shape is so ubiquitous, and if we understand that the Divine imprints higher concepts into the physical, then it appears that this archetypal story structure could be a universal pattern, at least in our logos.
This raises an interesting thought: galaxies with alternative formations might operate under distinct archetypal systems, a reflection of the endless variety and complexity inherent in the cosmos. Perhaps a hint as to what those archetypal frameworks could be is found it the shape of their galaxies.
How often have we heard of individuals being suddenly "struck" by a bolt of "creative genius"? Numerous tales abound of artists, scientists, writers, and the like who have given birth to magnificent creations, only to profess that the origin of their "unique" ideas felt as though they were not entirely of their own making but were, in essence, "channeled" from an external source.
This phenomenon suggests a connection to a higher reservoir of knowledge and inspiration, indicating that profound concepts are omnipresent, awaiting discovery and expression in our world.
This is part of our role here in Malkuth. To be conduits, grounding points, for higher concepts. To be the builders, where we can, of the archetypal frameworks thought up by the Logos.
This is true co-creation. To be aligned with the Divine, with Nature, allows one to receive, thus enabling them to move beyond the limitations imposed by Malkuth.
Malkuth is the first step on a journey back to the Ain Soph, back to no-thing. It is an essential step in our journey. As Dion Fortune writes,
“The Qabalah teaches that the body is the Temple of the Holy Spirit, and that unless we learn the lessons of Malkuth there can be no lasting progress beyond. The fact is that our first spiritual lessons come from those around us.
And if we cannot function effectively on the material level, learning from the day to day patterns which we have chosen for our incarnation, it is unlikely that we will be able to function effectively on a more refined spiritual plane. The ability to sense the importance of the ordinary is a special form of discrimination.”

It's really not going to look like anything special tbh. The Vocab cards would just be the Spanish word on the front then, answer on the back with an example sentence and a contextualizing image or clip on the back... if relevant.
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But I wasted alot of time curating a personalized example sentence for (almost) every single vocab word I discover. Key word is discover imo.
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Right now my example sentences contain a simple concept I already comprehend, atleast within the context of that sentence, for the word that I am learning to be applied to. Like my lunes card is ´´lunes es antes martes´´. As I create the vocab cards I try to keep main vocab word part as the primary focus in usage and less that of the sentence itself for the sake of simplicity which means that the vocab card usually ends up as the first word of the sentence unless I personally see no reason actually care. Like another card I have that was luckily easy to make for desde is ´´el imperio de mongol duró desde a 1206 a 1368''. Every example I create is with words I already know or do not feel a remote need to understand - to understand the sentence. but IDK. Also I'm more concerned with audio than I am with imagery though. But If I could make the back into a really simple clip and very quickly that would be nice, but I dont care about imagery too much as most of it is going to end up in immersion anyways. Sound matters for me though. Sound is really so i can read something out loud before I hear what it sounds like, which helps me make comparisons and judge myself while I flag cards to make filtered decks out of later. And of course, for words that I already knew before starting studying I do not even consider making vocab cards out of as it will be fluff. completely random words like mañana or lanzar are weirdly glued to my head specifically because I have a specific memory with them. like for lanzar I watched a little game trailer and a text prompt showed up saying ''lanzar roca'' for this fucking kid to just launch a whole ass rock at a dude across a bridge. which is goofy as fuck. the game was called pedros adventures btw.
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Also on the back of one of my vocab cards for the word 4th... I literally just put ''cuarto y cuarto'' fucking 10 times. because if you say cuarto 10x fast, it sounds like Squidward in Japanese which is fucking HILARIOUS.
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But if I could imagine imagery in a specific way it would really just be for nouns and numbers... and anything that has a very concrete meaning with just an image. like for example, you could have a game where an image flashes on the screen and you need to translate that image in your head or if you want by typing it or speaking it out loud. And you get feedback for elements of the image relayed... but I haven't spent much time thinking about that kind of thing cos its not on any to do list, but it would be pretty cool.
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its quite easy to curate examples as I'm watching these dreaming Spanish videos which is why id like to make some kind of sentence cards out of the clips. this is really because there is like a mix in my head between a sentence card and an example sentence on the back of a vocab card. Vocab cards are really the gateway for sentence cards imo. For any vocab card that has multiple definitions I need only create 1 vocab card for its primary use, and create sentence cards for its primary use and its different usages as I discover them through immersion. I can work out the nuance as I watch, read and write. and then as i immerse and gain enough vocabulary i will eventually bury more and more vocab cards and instead replace them with sentence cards. But of course, still using both in a balance.
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And ideally, all of this comes from something I highly associate with in my head. As in English; for any single word and phrase and etc., I have in my subconscious a lil smth-smth associated with that word in so many ways that I do not even realize. But I do not care to understand the little neural networks, just as I do not care to actually develop some stupid ass grammatical understanding before I even begin speaking or listening. but only to just create a 24 7 immersive study environment conducive to an almost gamified consumption that gradually improves my abilities over time. Right now it feels like i'm just trying to make a build, and I cant even start grinding the way I want to. I have tidbits here and there but I haven't worked it out entirely.
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And I do apologize if I seemed like there was friction between me and watching the dreaming Spanish videos when you had brought it up. it was just that as of now; everything I've been doing is just thinking of how to make this situation fairly seamless without needing any weird in-between steps just to do a single repetitive task. Like tagging and flagging cards is something you dont want to do manually, you want to do it with a key stroke or command. Books are easy to get, and I will be consuming the dreaming spanish videos now that I'm feeling how helpful they are compared to what I was doing before... Spanish dubs... alot of scrolling in tiktok... ALSO that one Spanish youtuber for chess called rey engima. He's like gotham chess but for Spanish which i absolutely love because I love chess and I needed a spanish way to consume it. Ive made alot of Spanish accounts for things and translated alot of UI into spanish. and I also downloaded urban VPN but i think that part was unnecessary asf.
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But really the annoying thing was how to approach anki. also, that 4 hour video I linked is really just an oversimplified text book to just get a general idea of a concept. Which is all I care about. Things like grammar are terribly taught in classrooms and that video just goes about it in a way I really like, atleast compared to every other explanation ive seen. I planned to just do just 30 minutes per day on that video as I focused on other things. but I got caught up with other random shit and then I kind of just set that video to the side... which is why i only watched 20 minutes of it.
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I am a really slow thinker, and things get to expedited when I get a foundation.
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In regards to what I mean when I said 'gamified element'. I don't mean to say things like grind and such like this is some MMORPG. I mean gamified in the sense that I get some kind of gamified feedback or feeling in a dopamine inducing form that encourages me to do really weird things to lock in that I dont anyone actually does. Like if im at the microwave and the numbers are going down, im literally saying those numbers in Spanish as they go down because in the end the main goal is to entirely quit using English as a crutch for the language and reach a point where you need only convert your conceptualizations into language and vice versa i.e., other Spanish speakers. But gamified elements provide for me an extremely significant way for me to engage with the language that I also really enjoy... cos im a weirdo. Being able to see how long I've spent on each card and other visual inputs about the outputs of my efforts are also cool, especially if displayed in a consumable manner to increase my receptivity.
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Anyways, hopefully I could at least give you an idea of what's going on in my head and what my goals are. This process has been poopoo stinky, and my brain is very poo poo stinky.

Navigating the Nuances of Stock Valuation:
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In the world of stock trading, there's a subtle art to distinguishing a stock's true value from its current price. This distinction forms the cornerstone of intelligent investing. Aswath Damodaran, a maestro in the realm of valuation, imparts wisdom that reshapes our understanding of investments.
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Understanding the Difference Between Value and Price
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The journey begins with comprehending that value and price, though often used interchangeably, are not the same. Imagine value as an iceberg's hidden depth, revealing the worth of a stock based on potential future earnings and the associated risks. Price, in contrast, is like the tip of the iceberg, visible and often swayed by market sentiments, news, and trends.
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Here, the concept of 'Discounted Cash Flow' (DCF) emerges as a beacon. It's a technique that calculates a stock's value by projecting its future cash flows and then 'discounting' them back to their present value. This calculation involves a formula:
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Present Value = Future Cash Flows / (1 + Discount Rate)^Number of Years 

In this equation, the 'Future Cash Flows' represent the earnings expected from the stock in the future. The 'Discount Rate' is a critical factor, reflecting the risk associated with the stock. Higher risk equates to a higher discount rate, which in turn lowers the present value.
The Four Pillars of Valuation
Shifting focus to the core drivers of a stock's value, Damodaran emphasizes four pillars:

1. Revenue Growth: It's akin to the fuel propelling a company's engine. Higher growth prospects can lead to a higher valuation.
2. Profit Margins: This is the efficiency with which a company turns revenue into profit. Wider margins often signal a more valuable company.
3. Investment Efficiency: This is how effectively a company uses its investments to generate revenue. Superior efficiency is usually rewarded with a higher valuation.
4. Risk Assessment: This involves understanding the various risks associated with the business, both in terms of operational uncertainties and the overall market risks.

Weaving a Narrative into Numbers
Damodaran advocates for a narrative-driven approach to valuation. This involves painting a realistic picture of the company's future and meticulously linking this story to the numerical aspects of valuation. It's about blending imagination with analysis, turning abstract ideas into concrete figures.
For instance, envision a company planning to expand its market reach. This narrative can directly influence the expected revenue growth and investment strategies, altering the valuation. The key lies in ensuring that the story is not just possible, but plausible and probable.
Finally
The essence of valuation lies in the harmony between numbers and narratives, between tangible data and intangible insights. By grasping these concepts, investors can navigate the stock market with a perspective that's grounded yet expansive, practical yet visionary.

To preface this, I’m an American Jew who isn’t a member of the military and doesn’t have any family in the military. So I don’t claim to speak for any soldiers and this is just my two cents on an argument I’ve seen a lot online regarding how the war in Gaza is being fought.
Said argument is “why doesn’t Israel send in more soldiers to preserve the lives of Gazan civilians?” Superficially, it gives the person saying it a theoretical moral high ground. But I don’t believe that’s necessarily the case. While I lack the knowledge of urban operations to prove or disprove the argument, that isn’t the angle I’m approaching it from. Although I’m inclined to disagree with it because of the way Hamas fights.
For me, the argument is about sacrificing the lives of Israelis for non-Israelis, regardless of the cost to the former. And that doesn’t sit well with me.
Last week, my parents went on a volunteer mission to Israel. There, they made food and tied tefillin for IDF soldiers, and had the opportunity to speak with those soldiers face to face. When they got home, they received a WhatsApp message from the soldiers saying how grateful they were.
But this post isn’t about my parents. It’s about the soldiers. Hearing the stories from my parents made me remember a key detail that many people forget when talking about war, especially if they’re an outside observer far from the fighting. Remember the human. That’s why the argument from ignorant westerners about throwing away the lives of Israeli soldiers to maybe save the lives of civilians in Gaza makes me so mad. Because for them, soldiers are some abstract thing that just exist to fight wars. But that’s not the truth. Each soldier is a unique person. They have their own lives. Their own friends and family. Their own hopes, dreams, feelings.
I’m not naive enough to think that a war, especially an urban war against an insurgent terrorist group that spits in the face of the LOAC to be without casualties. But there’s a big difference between acknowledging casualties and sending people, many of whom are my age, off to die in the concrete meat grinder.
I don’t really know how to end this, so thank you for reading and have a good Yom Ha’atzmaut.

There have been an increasing number of juniors visiting this sub asking for advice about writing essays. Below are some tips and advice for making your essay stand out as excellent. Feel free to ask questions because I will answer every single question in the comments.
I know from experience that many of you are struggling to identify a good topic for your essay. Conventional wisdom says to start by brainstorming a list of potential topics, and chances are, you have already started a mental list of ideas. You might think you only have a few choices for topics, based on your activities or experiences, or essay examples you read, or the rough draft you already started (or worse, that GPT started...). I advise, however, that you put down your list of topics and back away from it. Forget that exists for a moment. Seriously - thinking about this initial list tethers you to certain ideas that might not actually be your best options.
Now you can begin brainstorming with a clean slate.
Start with thinking about what you want to show in your entire application, not just one essay. Every single component in your app has one purpose – to tell more about YOU. Filling out the rest of the application by rote and focusing solely on the essay is short-sighted and will leave so much potential untapped in your application.

It's About You. Tell Your Story - And Be The Protagonist

An admissions officer’s goal is to understand you fully, in the context of your background and the rest of the applicant pool. They will begin this with assessing your academic abilities and potential. Then they will evaluate how you will fit into the student body they’re trying to curate. All of this can be somewhat broad and diverse and touch on several institutional goals. But they will dig deep to find out what each applicant is like, what your core values and motivations are, what kind of student you will be, how you will contribute to the vibrant and intellectual campus community they’re building, etc.
Your goal with essay brainstorming is to ascertain how to powerfully tell your story in a manner that will fit these criteria. The entirety of your application (again, not just one essay) aims to showcase your abilities, qualifications, and uncommon attributes as a person in a positive way. Before you begin outlining or writing your application, you must determine what is unique about you that will stand out to an admissions panel. All students are truly unique. Not one other student has the same combination of life experiences, personality, passions, or goals as you do. Your job in your application is to frame your unique personal attributes in a positive and compelling way. How will you fit on campus? What personal qualities, strengths, core values, talents, or different perspectives do you bring to the table? What stories, deeper motivations/beliefs, or formative experiences can you use to illustrate all of this?
It is always helpful to start with some soul-searching or self-examination. You might not immediately know what you want to share about yourself. It’s not a simple task to decide how to summarize your whole life and being in a powerful and eloquent way on your application. Introspection prior to starting your application takes additional time and effort rather than jumping straight into your first draft. But it is also a valuable method to start writing a winning application that stands out from the stack.
You'll see the advice everywhere that all essay prompts are really about the same thing - you. The goal of each essay then is to showcase who you are, what matters to you, and how you think. I guarantee if you're on this sub enough, you'll hear the advice to "show, don't tell" when writing about yourself. But what does this mean really, and how do you do it well? How do you even get started on an essay that does this?

Introspection Questions

It’s often easiest to start thinking in terms of superlatives, especially those related to personal insights -- what are the most meaningful things about you, and what do you value the most? Here is a list of questions to help you brainstorm broadly before you narrow down your focus for writing:

• What are your interests?
  
• What sparks your curiosity?
  
• About what topics do you enjoy reading?
  
• With whom do you enjoy spending time? Who has impacted your life the most?
  
• Reflect upon “superlatives” in your life. What moments were most memorable, formative, enlightening, enjoyable, or valuable? What physical possessions, experiences, dreams, or lessons could make your superlatives list?
  
• Stop and think about what things, people, or circumstances in your life are really unique, fascinating, or outlandish. Are there any that really have a lot of "cultural flavor" (whatever your culture is)?
  

I have a free introspection worksheet with over 100 questions like this designed to help you find ideas worth exploring in your essays. You can find it on the A2C Discord or download it directly here.

Find Your Story And Arc

Think of a small anecdote or story from your life that you could share that serves as a microcosm of who you are and what is important to you. It will massively help you narrow this down and find a gem of a story if you first start by thinking about your application arc or theme. This is the one-phrase summary of your entire application. It could be "brilliant entrepreneur who started her own successful business" or "talented athlete who wants to study economics and finance as they pertain to sports", or even "avid baker whose hobby sparked an interest in chemistry". It doesn't have to be related to your intended major, but it can help your arc be stronger and clearer if it is.
Once you have an arc determined and a story to share, think about what you want that story to say about you. This is where it can help to think of this as something you would share on a date - what impression does it make about you to the reader? Once you know this, start showing, not telling this attribute of yourself through your story. For example, instead of saying that you're compassionate toward others, you show an example of a time you were compassionate, then elaborate on why, and what it means to you.

Essay Brainstorming Techniques

If you are having trouble finding a story, or simply have writer’s block once you have picked your topic, here are some ideas to get your juices flowing:

• Stream of consciousness writing -- Start writing whatever is in your head, and don’t stop for 30 minutes. You probably won’t use what you just wrote for your essay, but it will help you find a starting point.
  
• Journaling -- Answer the prompt as if you were writing in a journal. This will get you in the habit of writing about yourself and establish comfort with the concept. It will also take you to a new level of introspection and self-awareness.
  
• Twitter X style -- Write several rapid-fire responses to the prompt in 280 characters or less. Choose an idea from these responses to expound upon in your essay.
  
• Read each essay prompt, then go through your introspection worksheet responses and connect the stories and insights to one or more of the prompts. Some students like using color coding to visually see how their different ideas might work together.
  

Why Essays Matter

Here's the thing a lot of people don't realize about college admission: it's not an award for being the smartest, most accomplished, or most impressive. It's an invitation to join a community. Far too many students think that if they can just show that they're smart enough, they'll get in. Yale even says right on their admissions website that 75% of their applicants are academically qualified to succeed at Yale. But only ~4% are getting in. That should tell you that they're looking for more than just top tier test scores and grades. To be perfectly clear, you will need top tier grades and (optionally) test scores to show that you're qualified, and the vast majority of my students come to me with this part already in the bank. But what sets the admits apart? It's personal insight - sharing who you are, how you think, what matters to you, and how you engage community. You can't just say "/IAmVerySmart, please admit me," or even "I did a cool thing guys! Isn't that neat!" You need to go deeper and show them your core values, personal strengths, motivations, aspirations, character traits, foundational beliefs, personality, etc. And you need to do it in a charming, winsome way that makes them like you and want to invite you to join their community.
So how do I get students to do this? All of my students complete that introspection worksheet. We go through it and find the stories, examples, anecdotes, conversations, memories, relationships, and other things from their life that will help us craft a strong and personally insightful narrative. We also make lists of the values, strengths, and key personal qualities we want to showcase. Once we have some topics, outlines, abstracts, or rough drafts, we talk about which stories to tell where, how to tell them well, and what details to include to present the best they have to offer. Then we refine, edit, polish, and enhance over and over until the story sings, but more importantly shows their heart and soul. We also go through all the other application components to ensure consistency, quality, and distinctiveness.
Here's why this works so well: at most highly selective colleges there is a primary reader (or 2-3) who will review everything first and then present it to the admissions committee, who then votes on whether to admit you. That presentation typically goes one of three ways:

1. Total enthusiasm, energy, and excitement. They strongly advocate for admission and paint a clear picture of how you will contribute to their goals and community. Everyone in the room picks up on that energy and is leaning forward in their chairs, looking for reasons to admit you. This is quite rare, generally less than 5 out of every 100 applications, even among those which are "fully qualified." When you do this right, you show depth, meaning, and valuable personal insights so the reviewer is learning about who you are and how you might engage the community they're curating. You come alive off the page as a person, not just another file.
   
2. Business as usual. You're another great applicant in a pile of great applicants. They share a basic review of the facts, your profile, stats, strengths, weaknesses, etc. Maybe someone on the committee finds something they love, and they really push for admission. More likely, not and you get deferred/waitlisted even though there wasn't anything "wrong" with your application. They just didn't love you enough to commit.
   
3. "Here's a stack of 20 applications that I didn't find all that compelling, so we won't present them individually, but you guys are the committee and you make the decisions. So let me know if there are any you want to talk about." In this case, unless there's a letter of endorsement from an athletics coach or your last name matches several buildings on campus, you're probably not getting additional consideration, much less admission. They will regret to inform you.
   

Everything we're doing is designed to help them get to know themselves, present the best they have to offer, and land in that first group. Having top tier essays is the single best way to get there. Get started on brainstorming in the next few weeks so you'll have time to get a few essays completed over the summer.

Relational-Reasoning Training (RRT) is a type of cognitive training that focuses on improving an individual's ability to reason about relationships between ideas such as objects, people, or concepts and using those relations to deduce further relations.The goal of RRT is to enhance one's ability to think critically and make connections.
RRT is based on the idea that humans are wired to recognize and respond to patterns and relationships in our environment. By training our brains to recognize and understand these relationships, we can improve our ability to solve problems, make decisions, and learn new information also Training in relational reasoning improves several cognitive abilities, with test scores increasing by as much as one standard deviation in some cases, and impacts academic achievement.source
There are several ideas of RRT:

1. Relational reasoning: This involves identifying and understanding the relationships between different entities, such as cause-and-effect relationships, spatial relationships, or semantic relationships
2. Pattern recognition: This involves recognizing patterns and regularities in the relationships between entities.
3. Abstract thinking: This involves being able to think about abstract concepts and relationships, rather than just concrete objects.

RRT can be applied to a wide range of fields, including:

1. Cognitive psychology: RRT can be used to study how people think about relationships and how they can be improved.
2. Education: RRT can be used to improve critical thinking and problem-solving skills in students
3. Business: RRT can be used to improve decision-making and problem-solving skills in business settings.

There are several methods that can be used to train relational reasoning but I am gonna be talking about the ones that work the most and they are the most beneficial and proven to work, they are

RRT GAMES

There are alot of those games I am gonna state four of them: Ikoku's syllogimous
Syllogimous-v3
Truth Lies Logic Puzzle Generator
Visual RRT And many more the best ones that are proven are ikoku's syllogimous and syllogimousv3
Some benefits of RRT include:

1. increase in fluid intelligence(iq):RRT can improve an individual's intelligence , the increase can be as much as one standard deviation in some cases, and can be a huge impact on daily life
2. Improved critical thinking: RRT can improve an individual's ability to think critically and make sound decisions.
3. Enhanced problem-solving skills: RRT can improve an individual's ability to solve complex problems by recognizing and manipulating relationships between ideas
4. Increased creativity: RRT can improve an individual's ability to generate new ideas and solutions by recognizing patterns and relationships.
5. Better decision-making: RRT can improve an individual's ability to make informed decisions by considering multiple factors and relationships.
6. improve in reading comprehension: RRT can have a huge impact on reading comprehension and ability to learn new information
7. increase in reasoning speed And much more benefits

Overall, RRT is a powerful tool for improving cognitive abilities and can have a wide range of applications in various fields.

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trick, trip, troop, trouble, truck, true, truly, trust, truth, try, tube, tunnel, turn, TV, twelve, twenty, twice, twin, two, type, typical, typically, ugly, ultimate, ultimately, unable, uncle, undergo, understand, understanding, unfortunately, uniform, union, unique, unit, United, universal, universe, university, unknown, unless, unlike, until, unusual, up, upon, upper, urban, urge, us, use, used, useful, user, usual, usually, utility, utilize, vacation, valley, valuable, value, variable, variation, variety, various, vary, vast, vegetable, vehicle, venture, version, versus, very, vessel, veteran, via, victim, victory, video, view, viewer, village, violate, violation, violence, violent, virtually, virtue, virus, visibility, visible, vision, visit, visitor, visual, vital, voice, volume, voluntary, volunteer, vote, voter, voting, wage, wait, wake, walk, wall, wander, want, war, warm, warn, warning, wash, waste, watch, water, wave, way, we, weak, weakness, wealth, wealthy, weapon, wear, weather, web, website, wedding, week, weekend, weekly, weigh, weight, welcome, welfare, well, west, western, wet, what, whatever, wheel, when, whenever, where, whereas, whether, which, while, whisper, white, who, whole, whom, whose, why, wide, widely, widespread, wife, wild, wildlife, will, willing, win, wind, window, wine, wing, winner, winter, wipe, wire, wisdom, wise, wish, with, withdraw, within, without, witness, woman, wonder, wonderful, wood, wooden, word, work, worker, working, workout, workplace, works, workshop, world, worried, worry, worth, would, wound, wrap, write, writer, writing, wrong, yard, yeah, year, yell, yellow, yes, yesterday, yet, yield, you, young, your, yours, yourself, youth, zone.

I feel like I should qualify this by saying I’m not certain I qualify as gifted, but this sub has certainly helped me understand my own mind better. This introspection has got me thinking about the relationship between cognitive diversity and society and I’d like to hear your thoughts on the matter, especially since most of you are intimately familiar with the effects of this interaction in your own lives. You can stop reading here if you want, because this is where I start rambling.
I’m not sure “conformist” is the appropriate word. I live in America and I think many would find it unwarranted to call it “conformist”, especially relative to most other countries. Generally, the country is pretty individualistic and a lot of work here is being done toward accommodation/inclusivity of diversity in various dimensions. However, I do think certain aspects are (mostly implicitly) conformist in that they don’t take into account other dimensions like cognitive diversity. In fact, I think cognitive diversity is grossly overlooked and misunderstood.
Throughout my life and especially my time lurking this sub, I’ve come to realize just how multidimensional it is in itself! Some people have internal monologues/dialogues, some don’t. Some can vividly visualize with their mind’s eye, some see nothing at all. Some think in abstract concepts, and some in more concrete terms. Some people can hear music on their heads, some can’t. Some feel empathy more than others. Some feel pain more than others, and so on… Our minds are stimulated by different things as well.
TANGENT: I’m nowhere near an expert, but I’m thinking the crux of giftedness may actually be how the mind is stimulated (Dabrowski’s idea of overexcitabilities that I was recently introduced to by a member of the sub). If a person’s brain is highly stimulated by and sensitive to the euphoria of problem solving, recognizing a pattern, deep and specific thought, etc. then the developing brain may just structure itself to be more proficient at it. Emotional excitability may lead to the brain prioritizing memory capture because of the role emotions play in that system. Maybe it’s all as simple as that: the sensitivities driving the brain’s development. I know it’s largely genetic and likely way more complex than I know, but I wonder if there’s a way to unlock these excitabilities during childhood with individualized and targeted reward systems to facilitate a similar kind of development to that of a gifted brain in a non-genetically gifted individual.
I wonder how much of all this is factored into how society is structured. For example, I think our schooling system, which I think is incredibly outdated and in desperate need of reform, is terrible in regard to accommodating cognitive diversity. I largely think of the academic failures of individuals more like failures of the institution. I largely see the failures of individuals in most areas, academically, financially, morally or otherwise more like inadequacies of the societies we’ve built. It’s wasted potential and needless suffering.
Sure, this can only be controlled to a certain degree. Governing this amount of people necessitates some level of generalizability in our institutions, but I can’t help but feel we can be doing more than we are now. If only cognitive diversity was getting the same kind of attention that more surface level forms of diversity are. At least now with AI we can afford people some level of personalized education or assistance, but I’m not sure this issue has so much appeal to actually make any timely or meaningful effort.
How much do our politicians think about this stuff? I’m sure psychologists and educators are all over it, but how much do their benefactors think about it?
Anyway, ramble over. This is a relatively new interest of mine so if you have any knowledge or reading recommendations, please do share.

There have been an increasing number of juniors visiting this sub asking for advice about writing essays. Below are some tips and advice for making your essay stand out as excellent. Feel free to ask questions because I will answer every single question in the comments.
I know from experience that many of you are struggling to identify a good topic for your essay. Conventional wisdom says to start by brainstorming a list of potential topics, and chances are, you have already started a mental list of ideas. You might think you only have a few choices for topics, based on your activities or experiences, or essay examples you read, or the rough draft you already started (or worse, that GPT started...). I advise, however, that you put down your list of topics and back away from it. Forget that exists for a moment. Seriously - thinking about this initial list tethers you to certain ideas that might not actually be your best options.
Now you can begin brainstorming with a clean slate.
Start with thinking about what you want to show in your entire application, not just one essay. Every single component in your app has one purpose – to tell more about YOU. Filling out the rest of the application by rote and focusing solely on the essay is short-sighted and will leave so much potential untapped in your application.

It's About You. Tell Your Story - And Be The Protagonist

An admissions officer’s goal is to understand you fully, in the context of your background and the rest of the applicant pool. They will begin this with assessing your academic abilities and potential. Then they will evaluate how you will fit into the student body they’re trying to curate. All of this can be somewhat broad and diverse and touch on several institutional goals. But they will dig deep to find out what each applicant is like, what your core values and motivations are, what kind of student you will be, how you will contribute to the vibrant and intellectual campus community they’re building, etc.
Your goal with essay brainstorming is to ascertain how to powerfully tell your story in a manner that will fit these criteria. The entirety of your application (again, not just one essay) aims to showcase your abilities, qualifications, and uncommon attributes as a person in a positive way. Before you begin outlining or writing your application, you must determine what is unique about you that will stand out to an admissions panel. All students are truly unique. Not one other student has the same combination of life experiences, personality, passions, or goals as you do. Your job in your application is to frame your unique personal attributes in a positive and compelling way. How will you fit on campus? What personal qualities, strengths, core values, talents, or different perspectives do you bring to the table? What stories, deeper motivations/beliefs, or formative experiences can you use to illustrate all of this?
It is always helpful to start with some soul-searching or self-examination. You might not immediately know what you want to share about yourself. It’s not a simple task to decide how to summarize your whole life and being in a powerful and eloquent way on your application. Introspection prior to starting your application takes additional time and effort rather than jumping straight into your first draft. But it is also a valuable method to start writing a winning application that stands out from the stack.
You'll see the advice everywhere that all essay prompts are really about the same thing - you. The goal of each essay then is to showcase who you are, what matters to you, and how you think. I guarantee if you're on this sub enough, you'll hear the advice to "show, don't tell" when writing about yourself. But what does this mean really, and how do you do it well? How do you even get started on an essay that does this?

Introspection Questions

It’s often easiest to start thinking in terms of superlatives, especially those related to personal insights -- what are the most meaningful things about you, and what do you value the most? Here is a list of questions to help you brainstorm broadly before you narrow down your focus for writing:

• What are your interests?
  
• What sparks your curiosity?
  
• About what topics do you enjoy reading?
  
• With whom do you enjoy spending time? Who has impacted your life the most?
  
• Reflect upon “superlatives” in your life. What moments were most memorable, formative, enlightening, enjoyable, or valuable? What physical possessions, experiences, dreams, or lessons could make your superlatives list?
  
• Stop and think about what things, people, or circumstances in your life are really unique, fascinating, or outlandish. Are there any that really have a lot of "cultural flavor" (whatever your culture is)?
  

I have a free introspection worksheet with over 100 questions like this designed to help you find ideas worth exploring in your essays. You can find it on the A2C Discord or download it directly here.

Find Your Story And Arc

Think of a small anecdote or story from your life that you could share that serves as a microcosm of who you are and what is important to you. It will massively help you narrow this down and find a gem of a story if you first start by thinking about your application arc or theme. This is the one-phrase summary of your entire application. It could be "brilliant entrepreneur who started her own successful business" or "talented athlete who wants to study economics and finance as they pertain to sports", or even "avid baker whose hobby sparked an interest in chemistry". It doesn't have to be related to your intended major, but it can help your arc be stronger and clearer if it is.
Once you have an arc determined and a story to share, think about what you want that story to say about you. This is where it can help to think of this as something you would share on a date - what impression does it make about you to the reader? Once you know this, start showing, not telling this attribute of yourself through your story. For example, instead of saying that you're compassionate toward others, you show an example of a time you were compassionate, then elaborate on why, and what it means to you.

Essay Brainstorming Techniques

If you are having trouble finding a story, or simply have writer’s block once you have picked your topic, here are some ideas to get your juices flowing:

• Stream of consciousness writing -- Start writing whatever is in your head, and don’t stop for 30 minutes. You probably won’t use what you just wrote for your essay, but it will help you find a starting point.
  
• Journaling -- Answer the prompt as if you were writing in a journal. This will get you in the habit of writing about yourself and establish comfort with the concept. It will also take you to a new level of introspection and self-awareness.
  
• Twitter X style -- Write several rapid-fire responses to the prompt in 280 characters or less. Choose an idea from these responses to expound upon in your essay.
  
• Read each essay prompt, then go through your introspection worksheet responses and connect the stories and insights to one or more of the prompts. Some students like using color coding to visually see how their different ideas might work together.
  

Why Essays Matter

Here's the thing a lot of people don't realize about college admission: it's not an award for being the smartest, most accomplished, or most impressive. It's an invitation to join a community. Far too many students think that if they can just show that they're smart enough, they'll get in. Yale even says right on their admissions website that 75% of their applicants are academically qualified to succeed at Yale. But only ~4% are getting in. That should tell you that they're looking for more than just top tier test scores and grades. To be perfectly clear, you will need top tier grades and (optionally) test scores to show that you're qualified, and the vast majority of my students come to me with this part already in the bank. But what sets the admits apart? It's personal insight - sharing who you are, how you think, what matters to you, and how you engage community. You can't just say "/IAmVerySmart, please admit me," or even "I did a cool thing guys! Isn't that neat!" You need to go deeper and show them your core values, personal strengths, motivations, aspirations, character traits, foundational beliefs, personality, etc. And you need to do it in a charming, winsome way that makes them like you and want to invite you to join their community.
So how do I get students to do this? All of my students complete that introspection worksheet. We go through it and find the stories, examples, anecdotes, conversations, memories, relationships, and other things from their life that will help us craft a strong and personally insightful narrative. We also make lists of the values, strengths, and key personal qualities we want to showcase. Once we have some topics, outlines, abstracts, or rough drafts, we talk about which stories to tell where, how to tell them well, and what details to include to present the best they have to offer. Then we refine, edit, polish, and enhance over and over until the story sings, but more importantly shows their heart and soul. We also go through all the other application components to ensure consistency, quality, and distinctiveness.
Here's why this works so well: at most highly selective colleges there is a primary reader (or 2-3) who will review everything first and then present it to the admissions committee, who then votes on whether to admit you. That presentation typically goes one of three ways:

1. Total enthusiasm, energy, and excitement. They strongly advocate for admission and paint a clear picture of how you will contribute to their goals and community. Everyone in the room picks up on that energy and is leaning forward in their chairs, looking for reasons to admit you. This is quite rare, generally less than 5 out of every 100 applications, even among those which are "fully qualified." When you do this right, you show depth, meaning, and valuable personal insights so the reviewer is learning about who you are and how you might engage the community they're curating. You come alive off the page as a person, not just another file.
   
2. Business as usual. You're another great applicant in a pile of great applicants. They share a basic review of the facts, your profile, stats, strengths, weaknesses, etc. Maybe someone on the committee finds something they love, and they really push for admission. More likely, not and you get deferred/waitlisted even though there wasn't anything "wrong" with your application. They just didn't love you enough to commit.
   
3. "Here's a stack of 20 applications that I didn't find all that compelling, so we won't present them individually, but you guys are the committee and you make the decisions. So let me know if there are any you want to talk about." In this case, unless there's a letter of endorsement from an athletics coach or your last name matches several buildings on campus, you're probably not getting additional consideration, much less admission. They will regret to inform you.
   

Everything we're doing is designed to help them get to know themselves, present the best they have to offer, and land in that first group. Having top tier essays is the single best way to get there. Get started on brainstorming in the next few weeks so you'll have time to get a few essays completed over the summer.