Merge branch 'master' of https://github.com/BigCoke233/geek-death-project

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diff --git a/content/en/posts/take-ugly-notes-do-pretty-work.md b/content/en/posts/take-ugly-notes-do-pretty-work.md
index b9e47b6f..6a311ecd 100644
--- a/content/en/posts/take-ugly-notes-do-pretty-work.md
+++ b/content/en/posts/take-ugly-notes-do-pretty-work.md
@@ -1,19 +1,13 @@
 ---
 title: Take Ugly Notes and Do Pretty Work
-subtitle: 
-tags: 
-related_cards: 
-mentioned_books: 
-date: 
-categories: 
-banner: 
-draft: true
+date: 2025-05-09T16:59:00
+draft: false
 toc: true
 ---
 
 ## Note is a four-letter word
 
-I used to be obsessed with taking pretty notes. Here's my old Obsidian vault and I haven't opened it for almost a year. 
+I used to be obsessed with taking pretty notes. Here's my old Obsidian vault. And I haven't opened it for almost a year. 
 
 ![](https://image.guhub.cn//uPic/IMG_3586-2.JPG)
 
@@ -23,21 +17,21 @@ And I surely did not. <!--more-->
 
 These well-organized brilliant-looking notes never actually helped me learn anything. Well, maybe a little, but all the good learning happened while I'm doing actual work, not taking pretty notes.
 
-I'm sure I'm not alone here. Lots of us get lost in the sea of knowledge. But how did we get here?
+I'm sure I'm not alone here. Lots of us get lost in the sea of knowledge, trying to build a better boat or a ship when we don't even have to be on the water. But how did we get here?
 
 ## The source of all evils: *Schools*
 
 In school, apart from test results, teachers evaluate students' academic performance merely by looking at their notes, *at least here in China*. I remember in my middle school and high school, if a kid's book is almost illegible because they have written useless words all over the page, they are considered as a diligent child. Otherwise, they're lazy, rebellious, and mischievous.
 
-And guess what, we all try to write as much crap as possible but never even think to review it. 
+And guess what, we all try to write as much crap as possible. But we never even think to review it. 
 
-The teachers just love comparing students. If a student's notebook is clean and untouched, they're bad. *Oh, yours is all filled with ink? How dare you be proud of yourself? Look at that guy. He's got pretty highlights and beautiful calipgraphy. Try to be more organized, you disgusting.* 
+The teachers just love comparing students. If a student's notebook is clean and untouched, they're bad and should be given a lecture. When the lecture is done, the teacher finds another one and says: *Oh, yours is all filled with ink? How dare you be proud of yourself? Look at that guy. He's got pretty highlights and beautiful callipgraphy. Try to be more organized, you disgusting.* 
 
 Then the teacher turns around, looking at that guy he just gave compliments to. *And don't feel so good about yourself already. Look at your book. It's too tidy! It's obvious that you never opened it! Spend less time trying to be pretty, you sissy!*
 
-Just like that, taking notes becomes a game, which confusingly has no rules but is somehow very important to your performance.
+Just like that, **taking notes becomes a game, which confusingly has no rules but is somehow very important to your performance.**
 
-However, taking notes is not always like this. I believe written languages are created for humans' desire to remember things and master skills. We invented speaking to communicate and writing to take notes. When goals are clear, we know what to write and what not to write. Nobody has ever struggled to find the perfect note-taking method.
+However, taking notes is not always like this. I believe written languages are created for humans' desire to remember things and master skills. We invented speaking to communicate and writing to log things. When goals are clear, we know what to write and what not to write. Nobody has ever struggled to find the perfect note-taking method.
 
 Schools messed us up with meaningless chicken fights and made us all believed that note-taking is a really big deal, but it's not. It's not only schools, maybe also workplaces with stupid rules that forces you to write reports and summaries and stuff. And they blame you for not doing any good work.
 
@@ -51,9 +45,9 @@ I watched a YouTube video on writing mini essays to build a systematic framework
 
 Inspiring! A notebook is just like a sketchbook. You sketch to capture new ideas, but the real paintings happen on a canvas. We don't expect our sketch to be perfect, but we do know that we need to put extra effort to the real work.
 
-Sketch is fun, I believe. Yet if an artist spends too much time on sketching, there is less time for them to do real work, which requires an insane amount of time and energy.
+Sketch is fun, I believe. Yet if an artist spends too much time sketching, there is less time for them to do real work, which requires an insane amount of time and energy.
 
-Let's say there's an artist named Peter (I don't know why it's the first name that popped into my mind). Peter is learning how to paint, and he thought he needed some time to practice and prepare for the real work, where all the magic happens.
+Let's say there's an artist named Peter (I don't know why it's the first name that popped into my mind). Peter is learning to paint, and he thought he needed some time to practice and prepare for the real work, where all the magic happens.
 
 Sure, that seems fair.
 
@@ -63,8 +57,35 @@ But did he really?
 
 If we open Peter's sketchbook, we'll find that there's nothing but pencil-drawn lines, and some shades maybe, I'm no artist. Well, you definitely cannot put those in a gallery or an art show.
 
-In fact, Peter is an artist who has done no work of art. He only sketches, and maybe even wrote essays on art.
+In fact, **Peter is an artist who has done no work of art**. He only sketches, and maybe even writes essays on art and loves making smart comments on other artists' work.
 
 But the thing is that Peter has become so obsessed with sketches. He completely forgot that he needs to paint.
 
 And so did we, fellow note-takers. We can't just be note-taking. We need to actually create something.
+
+## Why we procrastinate real work by taking notes and sketching
+
+It's complicated how the human brain works. 
+
+Maybe it's fear. Though we do wish to be the person we want to be, it's frightening to actually do that, because you might fail, and who are you if you fail to be you? The existential crisis deep in your subconscious mind stops you from the devastating possibility.
+
+Meanwhile, preparing for your work is a legitimate thing to do. It makes you feel like you're pursuing your dreams and goals, but that feeling is simply a mirage. The fact is that, after all this time you've spent on your pretty note vault, you've done no work to show off.
+
+## Take ugly notes
+
+Let's wrap this up.
+
+We're taught in schools that note-taking is significant and should be paid much attention to. When we need to do real work, we find ourselves at loss and overwhelmed, so we went back to do so-called significant and attention-worthy things, note-taking. However, we're just postponing the reality that we eventually need to face, that we have done no work related to our identity. 
+
+It's worse than bad work. But it doesn't feel that way, because getting nothing done never leads to the horrifying possibility that your work means nothing to your audience and people say you should quit. It feels better to have no work to show, because people will say you are still learning when they see your pretty notes, and they might even compliment your novel ideas.
+
+The fact is that no successful people need to show off their notes or feel like they need to tell people how hard they've worked for what they have today. They feel satisfied just by showing off their work.
+
+You don't need to prove it to people by taking pretty notes when you already have excellent work that enhances your identity.
+
+My point is: Take ugly notes. Waste no time on preparation. Start doing real work immediately after you've been prepared. Your preparation doesn't need to look nice. They just need to be helpful. I believe ugly notes that is only comprehensible to yourself are the most time-efficient and meaningful.
+
+It doesn't mean that the uglier your notes look, the prettier your work will be. It means that ugly notes are sufficient for creating pretty work. Doing more than ugly only consumes your energy and feeds your ego when you obviously have no good reasons for that.
+
+If you've done work and it looks *shitty*. It's not because you haven't done enough preparation. It just means you need to work on your skills. You do that by taking ugly notes on what you did right and what you did wrong, and then try to do pretty work and avoid failure again. To this point, that failure is not really a failure.
+