Blog Posts

Learning Chinese - Week 2

Eric Kraus
learning
30 Dec, 2018

I'm two weeks into my Chinese study and have made a lot of progress. I've also gathered a lot of useful tips and some lessons learned over my studying during my first week. Goal For starters, I've landed on an objective goal for 2019. I want to pass (minimally) the HSK 1 and hopefully the HSK 2 exams by the end of the calendar year. The HSK Chinese Proficiency exams are given to non-native Chinese speakers to evaluate their depth of understa

Learning Chinese - Week 1

Eric Kraus
learning
22 Dec, 2018

I just officially wrapped up my first week of self-study on Chinese. Here are some thoughts and lessons learned. This week I tried to focus on just getting familiar with Chinese, resources, pinyin rules/exceptions and not really worrying too much about vocab or Chinese characters. As I mentioned in the Learning/Resources post, I have been using the Anki mobile app for flash card studying - it is awesome. The Anki M

My 2019 Learning Goal

Eric Kraus
learning
19 Dec, 2018

Looking back... 2018 was a crazy year! I got a late start on my New Year's Resolution. In fact, I likely wouldn't even have had one if it weren't for a suggestion from a friend who was doing a similar activity."Sure! I'll do that too!"The idea was simple: read 100 books in 2018. Looking back, that was quite the audacious goal. Along the way, I've received numerous questions about how I chose the topics, where I bought

Learning Chinese

Eric Kraus
learning
18 Dec, 2018

Introduction As I'm working through my 2019 goal to learn Chinese, I am planning to gather some thoughts on my preparation and progress throughout the year. Challenge Like any foreign language, the key (and biggest challenge) to fluency, will be immersion. This is going to be especially difficult for a guy that doesn't live in a native-Chinese speaking country, is not married to a Chinese woman, did not adopt Chinese children, doesn't h

Book: Works Well With Others

Eric Kraus
productivity
02 Jul, 2018

This was another used book store find... A quick read, packed with tidbits on work politics, getting ahead and staying out of trouble. The book wasn't based around a single "thing" you have to do to be successful. This added to my appreciation for the book (and wore out my highlighter). Expect a collection of thought-provoking perspectives through the journey/experiences of the author's career change. Humor, honesty and simple concepts make it a

Book: The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck

Eric Kraus
productivity
04 Jun, 2018

I'll admit it, the title of this book and the assumption that a lot of cursing would be involved drew me to make the purchase. I didn't expect the content to be revolutionary, but possibly a different (and entertaining) spin on some old advice.<Product affiliateLink="https://amzn.to/4dxBm4j" imageSrc="/images/books/book-subtleartofnotgiving.png" alt="The Subtle