Why (sometimes) you shouldn't read IMDB discussions on movies

I take pride in my taste in movies (and a zillion other things, but forget that). The other day, I decided to watch Dan in Real Life simply after listening to this beautiful track Modern Nature by Sondre Lerche (and two positive reviews).

Towards the end it's a kind of feel good movie. Good in parts. Much better than average garbage. 

Then, I went back to IMDB site and read the discussion threads. People were quite mean and pointed out various flaws in the movie (some of which, on second thoughts, I agreed with). As a result, I felt I enjoyed the movie less, retrospectively. Since then I have decided not to read IMDB discussion threads unless the movie has a high (8+) rating. For 8+ movies, the discussions are more knowledgeable, bring out the hidden nuances, make you appreciate the movie more. For such movies, generally people have both positive and negative things to talk about. Even then, it is better to first have one's own opinion, before listening to others. Otherwise we'll become like this.

So, what's your MBTI type?

On someone's Quora profile, I read about this test that tries to tell your personality type. I had heard this kind of stuff before but never tried it. If you have seen some usual psychological questionnaires in magazines, they are of the type "If most of your answers were A then you are adjective1, adjective2, adjective3", "If most of your answers were B, then you are .." so on. Even if we assume for a second that these tests truthfully assess you (and this is a big IF) they suck so much that their creators haven't even bothered randomizing the choices. (I think) After going through first few questions, the reader understands the pattern and from that point onwards they try to (probably not fully consciously) conform to their previous choices. For example, if someone selects choice A for first three questions, if they are in doubt about the fourth question, they are likely to choose an option that is consistent with their previous choices, irrespective of what they actually feel. So, the readers trick their minds trying to paint a consistent picture, rather than fractured bits of truth.

Coming to this particular personality assessment test, look at some of the yes/no answer statements. While some questions have relatively straightforward answers, others don't. For example,

You feel involved when watching TV soaps. Yes/No?

Firstly, let's put all the serials, series, and soap operas into one bucket. Since everyone's tastes are different, most people will find themselves more involved in at least one series (different for each person). If most people answer Yes to this question, how is this supposed to give insight into their personality? 

You are more interested in a general idea than in the details of its realization. Yes/No?

Well, sometimes I am and sometimes am not. Depends on how critical the situation is.

It's difficult to get you excited. Yes/No? 

This is an amusing question. It's difficult to get you excited by what or whom? There could be a myriad number of situations, how am I supposed to answer this? Also excited means what? It could vary from mild to mania. I suppose this and most of such confusing questions could be answered by comparing ourselves with those around us. If these people get more excited than you (about things in general), then you are difficult to get excited.

You know how to put every minute of your time to good purpose. Yes/No?

This is such a pretentious question. Every minute? Hardly a few people on earth would be able to truthfully answer this as Yes. (And would they take this test?). Ok, I get it, we shouldn't take this literally. Still. The situation changes from day to day. There are uptimes and downtimes.

Anyway, despite such confusion, I somehow managed to finish the test. INTJ.

On an unrelated note, I will leave you with this video :)

The men who made us fat [Documentary Recommendation]

A very good 3 part documentary series  on the "obesity crisis", better than "Supersize Me" in terms of information content. Most interesting part was how the food industry influenced decision making bodies and ignored warnings of academic scholars.

I didn't know that the obesity problem had reached an epidemic level in the US and UK. Quite alarming.

9/10

Not taking this sitting down ..

  After reading a lot about disadvantages of sitting for longer periods of time, and hating the disgusted feeling of sitting for hours (even with short breaks in between), I  finally decided to stand while coding. Not full time, sweet spot for me seems about 4-5 hours. (Relevant reading). 

Today marks 30th day since I started doing it.

Setup:

I have two setups, one at home another at office. My home desk has two flat top surfaces at different heights (I'm unfamiliar with the parts-of-table terminology) as shown in this side profile - 

Monitor is on the topmost surface (red) and keyboard goes on a cardboard box on the lower black surface.
 
Office desk is somewhat different, it doesn't have a top surface so I just used old boxes to raise the height of the monitor. Monitor height is such that even if I sit in the chair the height is just about right so I don't have to adjust monitor (apart from changing the facing angle).

Changes felt:

• General feeling of wellness/feeling more energetic (could be placebo effect) 
• Better concentration for longer periods
• Less occasional back pain

My recommendation: Try it! 

Here's this week's fav track (also check out other tracks in the same album)