Reason as Resistance: The Moral Duty of the Rational Mind

Rationality: An Obligation for Human Autonomy

Rationality is not just a tool — it is an obligation that drives our autonomy, to fulfill our potential. It serves as our fundamental compass in navigating reality, empowering self-determination in a complex world increasingly dominated by systems seeking to control rather than liberate. Through rational thought, we question beliefs, free ourselves from illusion, detect manipulation, and rigorously examine the foundations of our deepest convictions.

This capacity for reasoned inquiry is necessary for both individual autonomy and societal progress because it provides the only reliable defense against pervasive forms of dogma that seek to subjugate the mind through unquestioning acceptance and obedience. To embrace rationality is to embrace the fullness of what it means to be human; to abandon it is to surrender our most essential faculty.

Where dogma demands false binaries, rationality questions. Bush’s infamous “Either you’re with us or you are with the terrorists” exemplifies how authority traps thought. Questioning such framing is not weakness, but portrays strength to demand evidence.

Where media and political rhetoric erase nuance, dig for the bodies. Where belief offers comfort, test for errors.

There is a cold comfort in this: The cold, solitary process of self-examination is comforting because it abandons superficial lies we might let slip, using personal agency to hold Truth as a high value; in ourselves and in others. The process reveals the struggle of integrity: Questioning “how much do I really value Truth within and beyond?” humbles us to recursively examine, and to not accept the first thing uncovered by an epistemological process.

To abandon rationality is to betray yourself. It means willingly submitting to intellectual subjugation, rejecting the responsibility of autonomy, and surrendering your power to those who would enslave your mind. Unlike external systems that offer fixed answers, rationality provides an approach that evolves as our understanding deepens. It represents both a personal imperative for individual flourishing and a social obligation for human progress. When we fail to think rationally, we not only diminish our own potential but sabotage our capacity to contribute meaningfully to society. Our progress, fate, and circumstances are determined by choices informed by reality — and rationality is our only reliable compass for navigating this complex world.

Whom fear controls, reason empowers to interrogate. What dogma suppresses, reason invites to question. Where obedience is demanded, rational inquiry sows the first seeds of dissent — not for rebellion’s sake, but for truth’s.

Religion: The Oldest System of Unexamined Control

Religion remains the most socially acceptable form of intellectual subjugation, and perhaps the most widespread form of psychological abuse inflicted upon children, its most vulnerable victims.

Faith demands unquestioning belief, regardless of understanding. It punishes doubt and rewards conformity. It elevates obedience to a virtue and casts independent thought as sin.

The deeper harm is more subtle: Religion interferes with thinking, offering the comfort of certainty in place of the inquiry and doubt essential to critical thinking. It relieves us from the labor of thinking independently, and that habit rarely stops at theology. Belief without critical examination weakens the mind, leading to the acceptance of falsehoods and the rejection of truths. In contrast, belief grounded in evidence resists the comforting temptation of certainty, keeping us aligned with reality, even when the honest answer is “I don’t know”.

Religion’s emphasis on faith over inquiry is deliberately self-sustaining. It valorizes obedience, casts doubt as weakness, portrays curiosity as dangerous, rewards adherence, and damns the disobedient — all to preserve its perceived authority and suppress dissent.

  • Biblical Moral: Unquestioning obedience to divine authority is paramount; doubt and questioning are dangerous and damnable.
  • Rationalist Moral: Question all claims, especially those from authority, as it is necessary for truth and liberty.

Consider the doctrine of blasphemy against the Holy Spirit (Matthew 12:31–32) — unforgivable sin, “And so I tell you, every kind of sin and slander can be forgiven, but blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven”. This doctrine weaponizes faith with eternal punishment to silence questioning and shield religion from scrutiny. This very article, in promoting rational inquiry to question religious authority, is blasphemous, by definition.

Religious control mechanisms exploit our faculties of trust and fear, while rational inquiry demands us to resist both. Throughout the Bible, God rewards faith and punishes doubt — a necessary tool of rational inquiry. “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” (John 20:29) — this shows how the bible valorizes Absence of Evidence, which exposes its mechanism of control, praising illogic. Ask yourself what kind of god would grant you a rational mind, then condemn you for using it to question its existence — all while refusing to reveal itself?

Fear-Based Control

Where the Gospel of John offers a “carrot” – bestowing blessings upon those who believe without seeing, thus valorizing the absence of evidence and praising illogic – the Epistle of James portrays god wielding the “stick” of damnation in a sort of spiritual blackmail:

But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. Such a person is double-minded and unstable in all they do. (James 1:6-8)

In this and other Biblical examples, God rewards faith and punishes doubt, a necessary tool of rational inquiry, to foster obedience and conformity to social and religious order.

While the Bible demands obedience, faith, and submission, disciplined examination reveals its contradictions, moral incoherence, and mechanisms of control. Whether by error or design, the Bible presents inherent paradoxes that, upon further examination, goad us to think, challenge, and, if we have the heart, to break through its surface-level dogma.

Dogma Doesn’t Work

Trust me Bro, This Works!

For centuries, across cultures and religions, illness has been attributed to divine punishment. This bad guess, held in overconfidence, led to ineffective and harmful treatments like bloodletting or persecuting the sick for “possession”.

Witch Trial (and Error)

The Salem witch trials in the 17th century were an extreme case of dogma. They showed how an unproven, outlandish supernatural claim, coupled with complete certainty in the “touch test”, a method whereby the accused witch would touch the afflicted person to see if that would alleviate the affliction. If the affliction went away, the accused was found guilty and hanged or imprisoned.

“It’s not what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know that just ain’t so.”

What Did We Learn?

We have now learned that bloodletting and witch trials are bullshit but, more important than that, have we grown the mental skills to effectively question things that seem plausible? What seemed plausible back then is obviously wrong now, but the tendency to adopt such beliefs without careful scrutiny, or, worse, to refuse to reconsider them, is common, and persists. Dogma pervades online, especially in politics and policy, through perception management to effectively influence and manage public perception, as will be discussed later.

“Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.” ― George Carlin

Intellectual Sovereignty — A Mental Exercise

Do you value truth above all else? If so, what method do you trust most for determining it? These aren’t abstract questions, they define how you navigate reality. Are you genuinely open to revising your positions based on rational analysis? This stance demands strength, intellect, and humility.

Intellectual integrity trades false comfort for freedom, at the cost of uncertainty and the burden of shouldering your choices. To embrace rationality is to accept fallibility, to sometimes say “I don’t know” rather than cling to comforting beliefs.

So ask yourself again, honestly: do you value truth above all else?

What to Believe?

What do I believe, and why? This is the first question of disciplined mental housekeeping. We tend to become so comfortable with our beliefs that we forget the reasons we adopted them in the first place. If you teach, guide others to reason freely — not to obey. If you lead, lead them to think — not to follow.

There is no greater defense against dogma — religious or ideological — than intellectual honesty, clarity, and the courage to be uncertain. Rationality is the antidote to overconfidence.

Examine Your Beliefs:

  • What do I believe? (Be specific. Write it down.)
  • Why do I hold this belief? (Was it inherited, learned, reasoned, emotional?)
  • How certain am I that it is true? (0 to 100%?)
  • What evidence would cause me to revise that level of confidence? (And would I genuinely change my mind if I encountered it?)
  • What are the ethical implications if I acted on this belief fully? (What would it justify, excuse, or demand of others?)

For example, posted on x.com:

Israel exists because GOD allows it! No one else…. God Himself. Jews came back to Israel to the land God promised them after thousands of years, a statistical improbability…. by the hand of God. Good luck with fighting God. You will lose

— The belief that the world is inherently fair and that whatever happened was deserved because god ordained it reveals errors in thinking: Wishful thinking, appeal to divine authority, emotional reasoning, confirmation bias, etc…

This is not just critical thinking — it is epistemic integrity; a form of mental hygiene against dogma, tribalism, and manufactured certainty. It is for yourself, as well as friends and family, and especially children, who are so often misled.

Reason Is Not Optional

In a world of propaganda, algorithmic echo chambers, and narrative warfare, reason is resistance.

It is the one faculty institutions cannot co-opt without your permission. It cannot be imposed. It cannot be faked. And it cannot be comfortably ignored.

Those who do not develop it will be governed by those who exploit their absence of it.

To Think Clearly Is to Live Freely

Rationality is not cold or mechanical — it is enlightening and empowering.

It is the clarity of mind to see through fear, deception, and control. It is to reject the default settings of culture, the familiar comfort of certainty, and the seduction of belief. It is the willingness to embrace the unknown in pursuit of freedom, knowing that freedom demands discomfort.

Reason demands we face the unknown at the cost of potential discomfort. Faith relies on things unproven, externally reframing discomfort as divine will, while demanding unwavering devotion.

Through analysis and inference, we transform raw observations into structured knowledge. Without this process, we are left adrift in a sea of information, observations, beliefs, assumptions, and deceptions. Reason enables us to evaluate information, reevaluate our beliefs, and more consistently arrive at the truth.

Moral Autonomy vs. Authoritarianism

Fundamentalist or authoritarian religious traditions glorify submission to divine will, treating dissent as heresy. Similarly, rigid state systems demand loyalty to the chain of command.

Systems of power — religious or state — survive on submission and obedience. They quash independent thought by punishing dissent and othering nonconformists. Whether through divine will or chain of command, both exploit the same psychological mechanisms to override moral judgment. In both, dissent becomes heresy.

Heresy — from Ancient Greek haíresis (αἵρεσις), originally meaning the process of personal examination to determine how to live.

The Nature of Authoritarian Systems

Authoritarian systems exploit our instinctive deference to trust authority figures that is reinforced by cultural conditioning that trains us to obey. This results in a psychological vulnerability that is systematically weaponized against individual conscience.

God-Fearing Bootlickers

Authoritarian systems glorify moral surrender, rewarding compliance and punishing independent judgment. Many religious interpretations of Genesis 22 exemplify that, praising Abraham’s willingness to murder his son at God’s command as a triumph of faith over reason, which we’ll discuss in much greater depth. And in modern society, “just do what the police tell you”, is a common authoritarian trope that discourages the assertion of individual rights (thereby weakening them) to appease authority.

Psychological Foundations of Obedience

Research has demonstrated the disturbing ease with which normal people surrender their moral agency. Solomon Asch revealed how group pressure can override individual judgment, leading people to accept a false consensus. Milgram showed that most will obey even the most abhorrent orders when issued by authority figures, suppressing their own moral conscience.

School Reinforcement of Obedience

These studies expose human tendencies to conform and obey — traits reinforced by compulsory schooling. Children are not given a choice; attendance is mandated by law and enforced through truancy penalties. From the outset, their time, attention, and thought are placed under institutional control. Adults dictate what is learned, when, and how. This hidden curriculum conditions children, rewarding passive compliance, suppressing independent thought, and normalizing lifelong subordination to authority. By removing volition and punishing deviation, the system trains children to internalize obedience as virtue and comply without resistance.

Modern schooling functions like a secular religion. It has supplanted the Church as the institution for shaping belief, behavior, and identity, with six classes a day, five days a week, nine months a year, for twelve years. “Childhood” is extended until age 18, treating young people as non-persons requiring constant supervision, stultifying by enforcing dependence.

Religious Dogma Kills — Genesis 22 and the Glorification of Obedience

In Genesis 22 , God asked Abraham to kill his son. Some people read the story literally; others read it allegorically, symbolically, or morally, suggesting it’s about trust in God under extreme circumstances, a rejection of child sacrifice (since God ultimately stops it), and virtuous faith that transcends human reason. This final point is contentious, as Abraham’s willingness to plot to kill his son and lie to his family about it praises the faithful obedience to suspend moral judgment.

Command over principle and obeying unjust orders prevents exercising moral decisions. In Genesis 22, God commands Abraham to murder his only son, and Abraham commits himself to doing it. As Isaac innocently asks, “Behold, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?” (Genesis 22:7). Abraham’s deceptive reply, “God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son” (Genesis 22:8), starkly illustrates his commitment.

This reveals not a loving and compassionate God, but one with a psychopathic willingness to inflict profound suffering for the sake of a test. The test itself was an act of mental torture, which should be expected to cause immense lifelong psychological trauma on father, son, and wife (also half-sister) damaging familial bonds.

“When they came to the place of which God had told him, Abraham built the altar there and laid the wood in order and bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. Then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to slaughter his son” (Genesis 22:9-10)

Regardless of the sacrifice being called off, Abraham still has to live with himself, and with a mutual understanding with his son, whom he lied to and plotted and determined to kill — stabbing him in the back, figuratively and almost literally. It’s no different than if Abraham had pointed a gun at his son and the gun jammed. He tried to kill his son and now has to live with it, because God put him in that place, knowingly, maliciously to torture Abraham to damage his family through his willing lies and murderous betrayal, as Abraham obeyed God’s command rather than his own moral conscience.

This story has been used to justify extreme acts in the name of faith. It’s an archetypal tale that illustrates the harm of accepting religious texts without considering the harmful implications of their teachings. The veneration of Abraham’s willingness to murder his son stands as perhaps the most prominent example of how religious authority demands the suspension of moral judgment — a pattern that extends into secular authoritarian systems.

The bible tells us to obey, but is obedience virtuous? When orders demand submission, moral agency raises questions. Conscience compels us to act not in allegiance, but in accordance with principles that reduce harm and preserve dignity. Obedience offers simplicity and security at the cost of agency, including moral agency.

Moral action demands clarity, which comes from understanding, regardless of, and sometimes against faith. Unlike the tale of Isaac’s binding, most moral corruption does not begin with grand betrayals, but with small compromises, made quietly, one after another. It progresses insidiously, until the compass is no longer surrendered, but simply gone.

Brownshirts Example: Ernst Röhm

As a revolutionary socialist and WWI veteran, Ernst Röhm conformed to Hitler’s vision to became a lead figure in the Nazi party to lead the SA (Brownshirts).

The Brownshirts were not just blind followers but also victims of the internal power struggles within the Nazi regime. Many were ordinary men who, through their loyalty to strict Nazi ideology, gradually suppressed their own moral judgment. Hitler’s eventual purge of the loyal SA leadership shows that even total loyalty offers no protection when an authoritarian leader’s power is paramount.

Modern Example: Authoritarian Tendencies in Crisis Response

The COVID-19 response revealed authoritarian dynamics in action: indefinite lockdowns, prolonged school closures, censorship of dissenting scientific views, vaccine mandates, and the rapid expansion of digital surveillance. Under the guise of emergency, basic freedoms were suspended with minimal debate or accountability. Most people complied without question, falling in lockstep with approaches that prioritized obedience over open inquiry and control over consent.

Star Wars: The Force is Within You!

In the Star Wars saga, Luke Skywalker embodies the power of moral agency over authoritarianism. Despite facing the overwhelming might of the authoritarian Galactic Empire and the powerful influence of his father, Anakin (Darth Vader), Luke consistently chooses his own moral path, to defy seemingly impossible odds, risking the ultimate price, willing to say, “I will not serve”.

In stark contrast, Anakin Skywalker’s tragic fall to the dark side shows the slippery slope of compromising moral choices and misplaced obedience. Initially a promising Jedi, Anakin’s descent is marked by a series of decisions driven by fear and a misguided belief that the Jedi Council’s authority was preventing him from saving his loved ones. His father Anakin, tempted by power, had been skillfully manipulated into a position of absolute obedience to the dark side. Anakin’s obedience ultimately led him to betray his principles and commit horrific acts as Darth Vader, demonstrating the devastating consequences of surrendering one’s moral autonomy to an external, corrupting influence. His journey shows how noble, well-intentioned men can be led down a path of moral compromise through the insidious allure of authority and the erosion of independent thought.

The Imperative of Moral Autonomy

Authoritarian systems glorify moral surrender, rewarding obedience and punishing independent thought — conscience be damned. The U.S. Constitution, forged in the fire of revolution by men who had directly experienced tyranny’s weight, stands as testament to what happens when individuals refuse to surrender their moral compass. Its young framers, of Enlightenment thinking, determined that power must bow to principle. Unlike Abraham, who raised his knife against his son at divine command, these revolutionaries resolved to craft a preeminent system of checks and balances, where power cannot outrank, supersede, or infringe upon individual rights.

Law enforcement officers swear an oath to uphold these constitutional principles, including disobeying unlawful orders from superiors. This commitment to principle over power stands in direct defiance of systems that demand unquestioning submission. It embodies the fundamental choice we each face: will we surrender our moral agency, or defend it?

Define your values, or someone else will define them for you. When you wake up serving a cause you never chose, you’ll wonder how you got there—and the answer was always your silence. Every small compromise of conscience paves the way for larger ones. The Milgram subject who administers a small shock today becomes capable of delivering lethal voltage tomorrow. The schoolchild conditioned to seek permission for biological functions becomes the adult who surrenders medical autonomy without question.

To resist authoritarianism, you must retain your right to think independently and to question orders that violate your moral conscience. This isn’t rebellion for its own sake—it’s the sacred duty of every human being. The cost of compliance is your integrity; the price of resistance may be steep, but the alternative is the loss of your humanity itself.

Our capacity for moral choice is what makes us human, and is reflected in our actions, which defines who we are.

Authoritarian systems exploit our human vulnerability to surrender moral judgment to higher power. The Binding of Isaac (Genesis 22) is a model example that shows this vulnerability in Abraham’s willingness to submit to God’s authority, and how God exploits his human weakness for a cruel test. Biblical narratives rely heavily on such patterns of control. We will use critical thinking to reveal how these stories promote faith over critical thinking — the very faculty they discourage — to reveal their hidden mechanisms and the deeper revelations of authoritarianism that eventually gave rise to Enlightenment philosophy.

Doctrine Versus the Heresy of Reason

Truth is discovered through reason, not dictated by authority. Religion replaces reason with doctrine and condemns inquiry that deviates from it. Its narratives are not mere myths but tools of subjugation, using fear and false hope, influencing communities that use social pressure to enforce obedience and conformity over reason. That’s why it condemns rational inquiry as heresy. This conflict between authority and reason is encoded directly in scripture’s foundational stories, which frame-knowledge seeking as disobedience.

Biblical Narratives as Control Mechanisms

Throughout scripture, key narratives establish patterns of control by criminalizing curiosity, punishing autonomy, and fragmenting human understanding. These stories serve not merely as myths but as foundational justifications for intellectual subjugation.

The Tree of Knowledge: Criminalizing Curiosity

The Garden of Eden narrative establishes the first and most fundamental criminalization of human intellectual curiosity. Genesis casts the serpent as a symbol of deceit, and the Tree of Knowledge as the forbidden source of moral discernment — the capacity to reason, judge, and choose.

What if the Serpent’s words helped Eve realize that to eat of the Tree of Knowledge was liberating — a necessary step towards consciousness and self-determination? The serpent offers knowledge. God demands obedience.

The inversion of the traditional interpretation exposes the narrative’s true function: humanity’s first act of intellectual curiosity — the embrace of autonomy, the capacity to choose — is condemned by the Bible as “original sin”. This condemnation shows the narrative’s role as a system of control. Our nature, our fate, demands that we claim our autonomy and break free.

  • Biblical Moral: Do not seek knowledge beyond what is permitted.
  • Enlightenment Moral: Seek all knowledge — especially the kind they forbid.

The serpent is cast as a symbol of deceit, as it led Eve to question God’s command (doubt) and to seek knowledge independently (rational inquiry), ultimately resulting in their expulsion from the Garden (punishment).

The serpent represents choice, self-empowerment, and knowledge-seeking — traits the Bible condemns as temptation into sin, which is then punished by expulsion from the Garden. To valorize knowledge-seeking is to side with the serpent, choosing enlightenment over divine command.

Lucifer’s Rebellion: Punishing Autonomy

The narrative of Lucifer’s fall represents the ultimate condemnation of intellectual autonomy. Lucifer is cast as defiant. His sin is pride, autonomy — the refusal to kneel.

  • Biblical Moral: Submission is virtue; rebellion is damnation.
  • Enlightenment Moral: Autonomy is virtue; submission without reason is moral abdication.
Lucifer’s Rebellion: Intellectual Autonomy

Lucifer symbolizes the quest for knowledge and truth over blind faith or obedience. His rebellion is not merely a refusal to obey, but a declaration of intellectual autonomy — rejecting authority without reason or inquiry. This mirrors the struggles faced by independent thinkers throughout history, from Galileo to Socrates, who challenged accepted norms and faced persecution for their pursuit of truth. Lucifer’s punishment represents the cost of intellectual freedom.

Lucifer’s Rebellion: Intellectual Autonomy

His defiance is not just rebellion, but a declaration of the individual right to self-determination — a core principle of the U.S. Constitution. This ancient lesson embodies the refusal to submit to unaccountable or unjust control, challenging societal and authoritarian domination over independent thought — and reminds us that the pursuit of autonomy comes at a price. Free men owe no compliance to unaccountable power. When consent is demanded under duress, refusal is a moral obligation.

Enlightenment rationality is Luciferian in the symbolic sense — rebelliously humanist; the archetype of defiant intellect against unaccountable power. Not malevolent, but willing to say, “I will not serve.”

The Tower of Babel: Preventing Collective Understanding

The Tower of Babel narrative illustrates how collective knowledge and unified human purpose are portrayed as threats to divine authority. The Tower was a symbol of ambition and self-governance without divine permission. God scatters humanity for their audacity.

The Tower represents humanity’s collective ambition — our natural drive to build, connect, and reach higher understanding. Yet in Genesis, this collaborative quest for advancement is portrayed not as progress but as dangerous hubris! God’s response, to scatter humanity and confuse our languages, reveals perhaps the most telling biblical attitude toward human potential: unified knowledge is a threat to divine authority.

This fragmentation of human understanding serves a specific control function. Scripture teaches that human power must be subordinated to obey God. But our capacity for reason and learning drives our advancement. The Babel story reveals that power fears independence, as human knowledge poses a threat. When God scatters humanity for building toward the heavens, the message is clear: humans united in understanding represent the greatest threat to unchecked authority.

  • Divine/Biblical Moral: Man must remain obedient and humble before God.
  • Enlightenment Moral: Human ambition and collective advancement should be pursued freely, guided by reason and evidence. Unity in understanding empowers human progress.

Babel’s legacy reveals doctrine’s primary goal is the subjugation of man. The bible’s portrayal of God fragmenting humanity’s knowledge and loyalties, then exploiting these divisions, reveals that to transcend this subjugation, we must independently determine to rebel against such imposed obedience. Individuals united in understanding are ungovernable. Outgrowing the thinking that sustains these narratives will mark a step forward in mankind’s evolution.

These foundational narratives in Genesis reveal a consistent thread: divine action to subdue mankind’s free will and intellectual ambition, punishing curiosity (Eden), autonomy (Lucifer), and unified endeavor (Babel), for obedience and submission to God.

Modern Manifestations of Doctrinal Control

The patterns of control portrayed in biblical narratives appear in everyday modern life. People acquiesce as they are coerced, then internalize inculcated beliefs as their own. Casting dominance as moral duty is doctrinal control: a system where authority is upheld through unquestioned belief, and deviation is treated as moral transgression. Doctrinal control is more pervasive and sophisticated than “might makes right”, it aims to foster moral obligation and instill beliefs, not just behavior, and its perceived normalization (social acceptance) reifies it, making it harder to resist internally. People obey not just because they fear the consequences of disobedience, but because they allow unexamined beliefs to bypass independent thought, internalizing them as their own.

Divine Entitlement: Land Claims Through Divine Right

The archaic belief that a universal creator selected “chosen people” with exclusive land claims remains one of our most dangerous myths — especially when backed by modern nuclear arsenals and geopolitical entanglements. Of the many justifications invoked in this geopolitical dispute, religion is the least rational, resting on an unverifiable appeal to divine authority that conveniently evades empirical scrutiny. The enduring land right claims over Israel/Palestine based on Abraham’s lineage beg a fundamental question: Was it, in fact… divinely granted?

The assertion of exclusive and perpetual land rights based solely on an ancient, verbal exchange with God (Genesis 12, 15, 17) fails basic standards of evidence. While religious tradition is one among several justifications invoked in this geopolitical dispute, it is uniquely resistant to scrutiny. It appears instead as a myth used to justify a land grab, repackaged as divine right. The control mechanisms established in scripture reappear here in modern form. Challenge these claims and you’re not just wrong — you’re a blasphemous antisemite.

This weaponization of belief against inquiry follows the biblical pattern precisely. But do the people making these claims even believe them? And if the outcome is the same — conquest, displacement, violence — does it even matter? And if we’re discouraged from asking these questions, what does that reveal?

  • Divine Moral: Divine right overrides human rights. Questioning it is blasphemy.
  • Enlightenment Moral: Rights must be justified by reason and evidence. No claim is above scrutiny.

Absolutism, religious or political, short-circuits autonomy, replacing reason with obedience and severing empathy by demanding and rewarding compliance as a virtue.

Secular Dogma: Non-Religious Control Mechanisms

Dogma extends beyond religion, appearing in academic orthodoxies, corporate policies, social movements, and authoritarian regimes through identical control mechanisms: excommunication for dissent (cancel culture), unquestionable axioms (faith in “settled science”), subordination of evidence to belief (ideology over biology), and shibboleths (mask donning; pronouns in bio to signify group compliance). These systems replace priests with bureaucrats, scripture with scientific pronouncements, and divine revelation with ideological dogma. Conformity is rewarded; inquiry punished; heterodoxy condemned.

Mao, Stalin, and North Korea

The regimes of Mao, Stalin, and North Korea all emerged as powerful political ideologies that resonated deeply with populations facing immense social and economic upheaval. These figures rose by inspiring hope for salvation from poverty, oppression, and injustice. Through powerful messaging that championed “the people” against existing elites, they acknowledged populist ideals of progress and liberation by promising a heroic utopia born from desperation, using faith and hope to inspire awe and cultivating cults of personality that approached self-deification (reaching near-divine status with the Kims) displayed via ubiquitous media presence, thus reinforcing devotion through collective conscience. Initially, they established movements promising a better future through collective action. This initial vision of a just and equitable world allowed these ideologies to gain traction, but ultimately destroyed individual sovereignty, paving the way for their devastating consequences.

Stalin’s Iron Fist

To enforce ideological conformity, Stalin othered groups, using terms like “fifth column”, “enemy of the people”, and “saboteurs” to demonize vast segments of Soviet society during the Great Purge. This “othering” — portraying dissenters as existential threats — justified the systematic arrest, torture, and execution of millions, from party members and military leaders to ordinary citizens. The decree of collective family guilt (also seen in North Korea) fostered fear and suspicion.

“Ideas are more powerful than guns. We would not let our enemies have guns, why should we let them have ideas” — Josef Stalin

Mao’s Great Leap Forward: The Deadly Dogma of Ideological Purity

Mao emphasized continuous revolution and ideological purity rooted in the peasantry. During the Great Leap Forward, this dogmatic adherence to Mao’s ideology applied to agriculture subordinated practical knowledge. The result was the implementation of disastrous policies that led to famine that killed tens of millions. Faith did not adapt to reality, and dissenters were cast out, labeled “rightists”, demoted, stripped of their livelihoods, sent to labor camps for re-education, and killed, like apostates.

The Kims’ of North Korea: The Deliberate Hereditary Theocracy

While the initial revolutionary aims of Mao and Stalin can be viewed optimistically, the Kims’ plans cannot. Knowing the outcomes of those regimes, the Kims deliberately copied their core aspects, adding the unique feature of a hereditary totalitarian regime that functions almost as a theocracy. This system was designed to preserve what they planned to be a godlike social status, presented as divinely ordained and passed down through lineage. The extreme nature of this inherited, quasi-religious authority necessitates an equally absolute and pervasive totalitarian grip, including stringent global isolationism.

Totalitarianism usually begins in soft tyranny, as a growing number of people give up their natural rights and critical faculties in favor of collective good, sublimating individual concerns, and blurring lines between individual rights and the demands of the collective.

The exploitation of crisis, the control of information, the elevation of unquestionable axioms, and the othering of dissenters can manifest in more subtle yet equally impactful ways within societies not considered authoritarian.

The loudest opponents of individual freedom never frame their arguments honestly. Ask yourself: Who defines the collective good and who benefits from your sacrifice?

Secular Dogma in Practice: COVID-19 as Case Study

The COVID-19 outbreak response revealed how secular institutions exerted control, weaponizing fear, moralizing obedience, silencing dissent, and elevating slogans over inquiry.

“Follow the Science”: A Mantra of Compliance

“Follow the science” functioned not as a commitment to evidence but as a means to elevate a slogan over inquiry, insidiously replacing actual scientific inquiry with a loaded, anti-scientific catchphrase. This mantra became part of a secular pseudo-religion, along with the shibboleths like masking and the mantra “stay safe”.

Shibboleths of Virtue

The demand for conformity moralized obedience, pitting “science deniers” as modern heretics, regardless of their arguments’ merits. “The Science” was treated as revelation: singular, static, authoritative. Distrust was cast upon non-compliant, polarizing them as unmasked, anti-vaccine, science-denying conspiracy theorists. While those wearking masks or vaccination stickers were cast as morally “good”.

Compliance Rituals and Moral Signaling

Despite inconsistent evidence for cloth mask efficacy (none outdoors), mask mandates became ubiquitous. Initially discouraged then universally required, masks became shibboleths — symbols of social compliance signaling virtue, with noncompliance cast as selfish or ignorant.

This reframing of science extended beyond the mandates, revealing authoritarianism disguised as an emergency public health policy response to a global emergency.

But science is a method, not a doctrine! Science involves continuous testing and refinement based on new evidence and open inquiry, with disagreement and critical scrutiny. When these are actively suppressed and policy is elevated above question, dogma prevails.

Heretics and Thought-Crimes: The Lab Leak Hypothesis

November, 2019, COVID-19 emerged in Wuhan, China near the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV), a center for coronavirus gain-of-function research. The idea that COVID-19 could have originated from the WIV — unknown, but plausible explanation — was denounced as a racist conspiracy theory. This stigma persisted even as U.S. intelligence agencies, virologists and journalists examined the question, revealing the WIV was getting funding from the U.S. government. The very scientists who had helped fund the research at the WIV used their positions to publish research that denied the lab leak hypothesis. As in all dogmatic systems, certain questions could not be asked, lest they destabilize the approved moral narrative, resembling how biblical narratives establish unquestionable authority.

Perception Management

Government encouraged online platforms to restrict discussion of the lab leak and skepticism about masks and vaccines. Not only were ideas limited, but those who dared speak them were demonetized, restricted, and removed from many online platforms, echoing the tactics used by totalitarian regimes, maintaining ideological dominance by quashing all dissent and casting out dissidents.

Anthony “I am The Science” Fauci

Anthony Fauci pronounced himself “the science”, building on the “Follow the Science” mantra and elevating himself to an unquestionable authority. Yet he frequently stepped outside his self-described “scientist” box to proscribe public health decrees, asserting that cloth masks should be worn, and that the mRNA vaccines were safe and effective at preventing infection. Worse, he proposed that COVID was of natural origins, and outright lied about his role in funding the WIV.

“No Evidence of Transmission”: The Strategic Ignorance Fallacy

Public health officials repeatedly claimed “no evidence of community transmission at this time” while simultaneously refusing to test for it. Symptomatic patients were denied testing through early 2020, creating circular logic to preserve institutional credibility rather than reveal reality. This “don’t test, don’t tell” policy delayed public awareness while maintaining an illusion of control guided not by reason but narrative protection.

“Safe and Effective”: Profit Above Scrutiny

The rapid deployment of vaccines was framed as scientific triumph, yet questions about safety, risk stratification, and natural immunity were treated as betrayal. Pharmaceutical companies, granted legal immunity, generated record profits; Pfizer’s 2022 revenue exceeding $100 billion, with nearly $40 billion from COVID products alone. Even modest skepticism was treated not as inquiry but apostasy.

Follow Reason, Not Science™

Rationality cuts through all dogmas, religious or secular, and all other bullshit, using evidence and reason to prevail over allegiance and consensus, and accepting the social cost of intellectual autonomy over mental fealty. Claims should be examined critically not obediently, especially those presented as beyond question or when obedience is coerced.

Historical Persecution of Reason

The conflict between reason and dogma has manifested throughout history in the persecution of those who dare to question established doctrine. These historical examples demonstrate the mechanisms by which institutions maintain control by suppressing rational inquiry.

The Case of Galileo: Science vs. Doctrine

The pernicious reach of doctrine extends beyond ancient mythologies into documented history. Religious doctrine, by design, defines and establishes absolute truths while suppressing deviation — a mechanism of control that manifested clearly when the Church mercilessly subdued Galileo Galilei’s rational inquiry.

Galileo’s case perfectly illustrates this. His observations were rejected not merely for contradicting scripture, but because they challenged the Church’s authority as the ultimate arbiter of truth — a threat to the very structure of doctrinal control. Isn’t the establishment of absolute truth and the suppression of deviation the inherent nature of doctrine? Galileo’s reliance on empirical evidence and logic was deemed heresy, a belief against Church doctrine. Accused, tried by the Inquisition, and forced to recant, his fate starkly shows how powerful institutions label rational inquiry as heresy to protect their authority and suppress intellectual autonomy in the name of dogma.

Just as Galileo’s pursuit of scientific truth was condemned as heresy for challenging established doctrine, so too does the individual’s assertion of intellectual autonomy challenge the religious doctrine of obedience. In a world that demands conformity and unquestioning belief, he who dares to think autonomously — the original meaning of ‘heresy’ from the Greek ‘hairesis’ — stands in potential opposition to prevailing dogma.

Intellectual Independence: The Ultimate Heresy

You were not born to obey.
You were born to see.
To think.
To question.
To learn.

These maxims are heresy in the original sense: they reject external authority and ground understanding in reason. Curiosity, no longer condemned, is reclaimed as a merit. Reason and observation, not faith, yield knowledge and understanding.

Where scripture says:
“Lean not on your own understanding…” (Proverbs 3:5)

This stance replies:
“Your understanding is your only reliable compass.”

Your mind is your own — this is the ultimate heresy against all systems of control

Reason as Liberation

Rationality empowers us against dogmas with objectivity, to forge a more intimate connection with the world as we own our volition and the gravity of its consequences. This ownership of our minds allows us to reconnect with reality, free from dictated truths. In accepting our freedom to choose, we embrace the full weight of consequence where moral growth begins.

  • Biblical Moral: Human power must be humbled.
  • Rationalist Moral: Human power must be cultivated — through knowledge, not submission. The Enlightenment restores clarity, curiosity, and communication as tools to guard against oppression.

The liberation offered by reason transcends both religious and secular dogmas, restoring intellectual sovereignty and the capacity for genuine moral agency. By rejecting externally imposed certainty in favor of evidence-based understanding, we reclaim our fundamental autonomy as thinking beings. Freedom begins where obedience ends.

The Path to Athletic Mastery: Training with Purpose

Beyond the Grind: A Blueprint for Accelerated Skill Development

What if more isn’t better? What if your efforts are getting in the way of skill mastery? What are you practicing? Does it build mastery, or just wear you down? If practice makes permanent, are you cementing excellence, or engraining flaws?

What’s the cost of more? In this article, we’ll examine what works, what doesn’t, and how to adapt your routine to master your performance.

What Are You Training For? Define Your Purpose

The most important question every athlete must answer is deceptively simple: What exactly are you training for? Your answer reveals whether you’re settling for general fitness or striving for true performance mastery — the latter being the focus of this article.

Getting in Shape vs. Performance Mastery

Getting in shape — improving general health, building strength and endurance, and reaching peak fitness levels — can be accomplished through countless training methods. Almost any program that challenges your body consistently will yield fitness improvements.

Performance mastery demands more. It requires developing specific skills and applying them under pressure. Here, every element serves competitive excellence.

The performance drills are the conditioning. Not separate conditioning disconnected from skill. Training becomes an integrated system where physiological development happens through skill application, not apart from it.

The performance drills are the conditioning.

What Defines Perfect Practice?

Perfect practice makes perfect performance. But what exactly constitutes “perfect practice”?

Perfect practice is characterized by three fundamental qualities:

  • Direct Transfer — training that closely mimics the exact skills, movements, technique, timing, and conditions needed, wiring the body and brain for performance

    Takeaway: Train what you use in the way you use it, forget the other stuff.

  • Context Integration — applying skills and techniques, new and existing, and established patterns in dynamic practice scenarios that mimic the interactive and unpredictable nature of competition, to develop practical adaptable and effective performance

    Takeaway: Apply your skills in progressively challenging performance situations.

  • Strategic Recovery — the proactive and intelligent management of physiological resources to optimize adaptation from training, mitigate fatigue, and enhance readiness for subsequent performance

    Takeaway: Treat recovery as training, not an afterthought.

When these elements align, skill development accelerates dramatically. Athletes progress faster initially and ultimately reach higher performance ceilings because they’re building capabilities directly relevant to their competitive demands. Direct Transfer training prioritizes skill development by allocating training time, focus, and recovery resources to relevant practice, improving the rate and quality of skill acquisition.

Perfect practice makes perfect performance.

Why Do Masters Make It Look So Easy?

Watch Steph Curry sink shots without looking at the rim. See Roger Federer return a 140mph serve with precision. Observe Anderson Silva dodge punches by millimeters, seemingly reading his opponent’s mind.

What you’re witnessing is neurological mastery built on multiple foundations with chunking as a foundational role. Chunking is how your brain transforms separate technical elements into unified actions requiring minimal conscious thought.

The underlying mechanism for building this neurological mastery starts with focused, isolated technique drills that train fundamental neural pathways. Tools like bagwork and padwork are crucial here, allowing for the repeated performance of correct form and efficient movement patterns, which programs “chunks” into the nervous system for correct, efficient execution that can be recalled quickly later on. This repeated activation underpins the development of fluid, automatic movements.

The novice boxer laboriously processes each component: plant feet, rotate hips, extend arm, connect with target. The master accesses these as a single chunk—one fluid motion that automatically adjusts to the opponent’s movement. This neurological efficiency frees cognitive resources for higher-level strategy and perception.

Technique drills, practiced with intent, merge these individual components into one fluid motion that can be recalled and executed as a single unit, or chunk. For instance, a novice boxer focuses on the separate steps of a jab: footwork, guard, shoulder rotation, arm extension, fist rotation, and retraction. Through focused drilling, these individual parts become a single “chunk,” allowing a master to execute the jab with speed and fluidity without conscious thought.

As expertise develops, your brain builds upon chunking to create motor schemas, sophisticated performance templates that adapt instantly to changing conditions. These aren’t rigid instructions but adjustable frameworks, like understanding cooking principles rather than following recipes precisely.

Consider the experienced driver on a mountain road: they don’t calculate steering angles and brake pressure — they feel the road and respond intuitively. Elite athletes similarly navigate competitive chaos with control through instantaneous adjustments they’ve built on comprehensive motor schemas, integrating perception, decision-making, and chunked movement patterns.

Isolated drills develop and hone chunks and schemas, but fall apart if not applied in contextual practice. These patterns must be applied under increasingly realistic conditions to develop them for competitive excellence.

Are You Investing or Squandering Your Recovery Resources?

Your body’s recovery is limited. Adaptation from each session draws on these resources.

Recovery is not just passive time between workouts but, an active process deserving strategic allocation:

  • Recovery Prioritization — Focus your training on perfecting the skills needed for performance, prioritizing skill development over less relevant activities.
  • Interference Management — Minimize training that drains recovery resources.
  • Capacity Enhancement — Speed up your recovery. This includes sleep quality, nutrition, hydration, sauna, Zone 2, red light therapy, foam rolling to promote blood flow and remove waste.

Every training decision represents an investment choice — where will you allocate your limited recovery resources for maximum performance return?

The Performance Gap: Why Gym Warriors Fail in the Ring

The gym hero who vanishes under ring lights isn’t bad luck; it’s an explainable neurological failure of transfer. Bridging the gap from masterful technique training to control under chaotic competition demands a deliberate bridge built on four pillars:

       

  1. Decision Pressure: While solo drills build foundational skills, they lack the reactive element of a fight. Smart training bridges this gap by progressively layering decision-making into all modalities: from a pad holder who counters, to visualizing defensive needs on the heavy bag, to reacting to subtle cues in shadowboxing, to live partner reaction drills, culminating in live sparring that demands split-second, consequential choices under increasing pressure.
  2.    

  3. Perceptual Triggers: Champions see more than movement; they recognize subtle contextual cues – like weight shifts that telegraph attacks before they launch – and react accordingly. Smart training hones this recognition through drills that incorporate authentic visual and kinesthetic information.
  4.    

  5. Psychological Resilience: Ring nerves aren’t overcome by willpower alone. Smart training systematically exposes fighters to audience pressure, consequence (even simulated), and strategic uncertainty to build mental fortitude.
  6.    

  7. Environmental Realism: The ring or cage, the crowd, and an uncooperative opponent fundamentally change the fight. Preparation must integrate these realities into training scenarios.

Integrate new techniques immediately in low-pressure sparring. Forge resilience through hard sparring under pressure.

Train in a vacuum, and your skills stay there. The gym hero’s downfall isn’t a mystery: skills aren’t magically transported; they’re forged in the fire of fight-like conditions.

Integrate new techniques immediately in low-pressure sparring. Forge resilience through hard sparring under pressure.

The Path to Mastery: Building Your Blueprint

Here’s how to build an elite combat sports program built on smarter, biologically aligned principles:

1. Technical Excellence Through Contextual Integration

Neural Pathway Activation & Skill Encoding

Focused, isolated technique drills train fundamental neural pathways. Bagwork and padwork allow for the repeated performance of correct form and efficient movement patterns, building conditioning by training technique under fatigue.

Technical development accelerates when initially isolated skills are rapidly integrated into performance contexts. Rather than endlessly drilling techniques in isolation, successful athletes quickly apply new skills in increasingly realistic scenarios.

For example, a basketball player might practice a new shooting technique for 10 minutes, then immediately incorporate it into decision-based drills and small-sided games. This progression creates not just technical proficiency but the ability to execute under the perceptual and decision-making demands of competition.

2. The Conditioning Is the Training

The most effective training approaches recognize that technical practice inherently develops the specific conditioning needed for performance. Boxing combinations naturally train the energy systems required for boxing. Tennis movement patterns directly develop the specific endurance needed for match play.

This integration creates remarkable efficiency:

  • Simultaneous skill and conditioning.
  • Learning to maintain technique under fatigue — crucial for competition.
  • Higher engagement leading to greater training intensity.
  • More efficient use of time, focus, and recovery resources in relevant practice.

By structuring technical practice to progressively challenge relevant physiological systems, athletes develop conditioning that directly supports performance excellence.

3. Strategic Complementary Development

While sport-specific training forms the foundation of mastery development, certain complementary approaches may enhance performance, if applied strategically.

  • Foundation Strength — Targeted resistance training that develops the fundamental force-producing capabilities underlying sport-specific movements.

    An athletics lab study on well-trained MMA athletes showed improvements in strength, power, and aerobic fitness with competition-oriented high-intensity, low-volume strength training (Kostikiadis et al., 2018). However, the study’s outcomes don’t show direct transfer to MMA performance. Because such training heavily taxes the CNS, it requires careful consideration in the scope of athletics programs.

  • Movement Efficiency — Mobility and coordination work that enhances the biomechanical foundations of performance.
  • Recovery Enhancement — Practices like Zone 2 cardiovascular training, breath work, and sleep optimization that expand recovery capacity

The key distinction: movement efficiency and recovery enhancement primarily support sport-specific development, strength training requires careful management, as it uses limited recovery resources.

Strength training requires careful management, as it uses limited recovery resources.

4. Individualized Progression Management

The path to mastery isn’t linear — it requires systematic progression based on individual adaptation responses. Successful athletes continuously assess both performance transfer and recovery status, adjusting training loads and emphases accordingly.

This process demands honest evaluation of two critical questions:

  • Is my training directly transferring to performance improvement?
  • Am I managing recovery resources effectively?

When these questions guide training decisions, both immediate progress and long-term development accelerate.

Why Generalized Training Misses the Mark

You’ve probably seen athletes running through ladders and cones, drills that look fast and agile. These SAQ drills improve fundamental speed, agility, and quickness, especially in developing athletes. However, they don’t develop sport-specific skills, which are best developed and applied as integral components of performance, not isolated drills with low transfer.

Instead, speed, agility, and quickness should be practiced as drills with direct transfer. This involves repeatedly practicing correct performance with integrated footwork to develop sport-specific speed and agility, and using partner-based reaction drills to develop the quickness of relevant skills.

Furthermore, SAQ drills consume finite recovery resources that are better allocated to practicing sport-specific training, which yields greater transfer to performance.

SAQ drills don’t develop skills.

Illustrating the Principles: Integrated Training in Action

Hypothetical Scenario: Elite Combat Sports Program

Imagine a professional MMA team that restructures its training entirely around sport-specific skill development, thoughtfully considering biological rhythms and recovery.

Instead of separate “conditioning”, physiological challenges are integrated directly into technical and tactical training, with the daily schedule potentially looking like this:

  • Mid-Morning: High-focus, high-intensity training for skill acquisition and motor learning, taking advantage of peak cognitive function.
  • Nap (Post-Training): A 20–30 minute nap to enhance consolidation, memory, and recovery.
  • Evening: A second session focused on physical output, more practice, or additional skills, allowing you to capitalize on physical readiness and motor skill reinforcement.

Evening training can be effective for performance. By this time, muscle temperature and neuromuscular performance are likely to be closer to their daily peak. The key thing is that, if the athlete isn’t overly fatigued from the first session and has benefited from the post-training nap, they can maintain good focus and motivation for the evening session. Furthermore, sleep after evening training will help consolidate the motor skills practiced earlier in the day and provide crucial recovery for both the brain and muscles.

Research to Back It Up:

  • Napping and consolidation: Studies show that sleep immediately following training is critical for motor learning. (Reference: Walker, M., et al. (2005) – “Sleep-dependent motor skill learning.”)
  • Cognitive sharpness and executive function: Cognitive performance, including decision-making and focus, is generally better mid-morning. (Reference: Schmidt & Lee, Motor Learning and Performance (textbook).)

Practical Application:

Training Window: By training in the mid-morning and following it with a nap, you maximize cognitive resources for motor learning, and then later reinforce motor skills with another round of training.

Recovery and Consolidation: The nap and sleep after the second session allow your body and brain to consolidate what’s been learned, promoting both physical recovery and motor skill retention.

The results of such a biologically aligned and integrated approach: Athletes maintain higher technical quality under fatigue, recover better between sessions, and maintain performance longer in competition. Consequently, competitive success improves compared to traditional approaches.

Real-World Application: The Power of Purposeful Training

Case Study: Youth Tennis Development

A tennis academy abandoned traditional agility ladder and cone drills in favor of movement patterns directly connected to game situations. Rather than practicing footwork in isolation, players developed movement skills through progressively challenging game-based scenarios.

After implementing this approach, players showed significantly faster decision-making, more efficient court movement, and greater resilience in competitive pressure situations. Tournament results reflected these improvements, with players demonstrating particular advantages in extended matches where technical consistency under fatigue became crucial.

Creating Your Mastery Blueprint: An Action Plan

How can you apply these principles to accelerate your development?

  1. Clarify your purpose — Define whether you’re training for general fitness or specific performance mastery
  2. Examine every training element through the lens of transfer — Ask “How directly does this translate to my competitive performance?”
  3. Replace isolated drills with contextual alternatives — Integrate technical elements into realistic performance scenarios
  4. Structure practice to simultaneously develop skills and specific conditioning — Design technical sessions that progressively challenge relevant energy systems
  5. Prioritize recovery enhancement — Implement practices that expand recovery capacity rather than further depleting it
  6. Continuously assess both performance transfer and recovery status — Make data-informed adjustments to optimize development

Neurological Foundations of Athletic Mastery

Athletic excellence is built through specific neurophysiogical adaptations. Understanding these mechanisms reveals why certain training approaches accelerate skill development while others waste precious recovery resources.

Motor Pattern Consolidation

Your brain doesn’t store individual movements — it builds integrated neural networks that link perception, decision, and action. This consolidation process follows distinct phases:

  • Cognitive Phase: Conscious attention to movement mechanics requires significant mental bandwidth, limiting performance under pressure
  • Associative Phase: Movements become more fluid as neural pathways strengthen, though execution still requires some conscious oversight
  • Autonomous Phase: Movements become largely subconscious, freeing mental resources for strategic decisions

This progression explains why isolated drills, far above SAQ drills, still fail in competition — they remain trapped in early development phases without advancing to autonomous execution under realistic conditions.

Contextual Encoding

Your brain encodes skills differently based on the learning environment. Skills acquired in simplified settings lack critical contextual triggers needed during performance. Three key mechanisms explain this:

  • State-Dependent Learning: Neural pathways formed under specific conditions activate most efficiently under similar conditions
  • Perceptual-Motor Coupling: Your brain creates direct links between environmental cues and appropriate responses
  • Attentional Framework Development: Training in realistic contexts builds the ability to focus on relevant cues while filtering distractions

Athletes who train primarily through decontextualized drills develop skills that require conscious translation to performance settings — a process that breaks down under competitive pressure.

Skill Transfer Mechanics

Not all practice transfers equally to performance. Transfer effectiveness depends on three neurological factors:

  • Movement Pattern Specificity: Similar neural activation sequences between practice and performance
  • Decision-Making Integration: Practice that includes the decision constraints present in competition
  • Performance Context Replication: Training environments that mirror competitive demands

This explains why athletes can excel in training yet struggle in competition — different neural pathways are being activated in each environment.

Blueprint for Brain-Optimized Training

To accelerate skill development based on these neurological principles:

  1. Minimize Isolated Technique Time: Move quickly from technical instruction to contextual application
  2. Implement Decision-Rich Practice: Even basic drills should incorporate relevant decisions
  3. Create Progressive Pressure Environments: Systematically introduce competitive elements that trigger performance-specific neural adaptation
  4. Train Perception: Explicitly develop recognition of critical environmental cues
  5. Practice State Regulation: Train under varying emotional conditions to develop adaptable performance states

Training as your brain encodes and accesses athletic skills transforms every practice minute into direct performance enhancement rather than abstract physical development.

The mastery question “What are you training for?” extends to the neurological level — are you training neural pathways that will activate under competitive conditions, or merely developing capabilities that remain inaccessible when they matter most?

The Path Forward: Excellence Through Purposeful Specificity

The science is clear: training that incorporates contextual elements and proper motor learning principles produces superior results at all levels of athletic ability. The path to mastery requires training with precise purpose — where every element directly contributes to performance excellence.

This doesn’t invalidate all general physical development, particularly for beginners or in rehabilitation contexts. However, as performance goals become more defined, training must become increasingly specific to those demands.

By understanding the science of motor learning, training transfer, and recovery management, athletes can create development pathways that maximize both the rate and extent of performance improvement.

The question isn’t whether you can afford to train with greater specificity — it’s whether your ambitions for mastery allow you to train any other way.

References

  • Coutts, A.J., et al. (2007). “Monitoring for overreaching in rugby league players.” European Journal of Applied Physiology, 99(3), 313-324.
  • Deci, E.L., & Ryan, R.M. (2000). “The ‘what’ and ‘why’ of goal pursuits: Human needs and the self-determination of behavior.” Psychological Inquiry, 11, 227-268.
  • El-Ashker, S. (2018). “Cardio-Respiratory Endurance Responses Following a Simulated 3 × 3 Minutes Amateur Boxing Contest in Elite Level Boxers.”
  • El-Ashker, S. (2018). “The impact of a boxing training program on physical fitness and technical performance effectiveness.”
  • Fathloun, M., et al. (2011). “Effect of specific versus non-specific training on agility performances.” Science & Sports, 26(2), 75-79.
  • Gandevia, S.C. (2001). “Spinal and supraspinal factors in human muscle fatigue.” Physiological Reviews, 81(4), 1725-1789.
  • Graybiel, A.M. (1998). “The basal ganglia and chunking of action repertoires.” Neurobiology of Learning and Memory, 70(1-2), 119-136.
  • Knudson, D. (2005). “Evidence-based practice in kinesiology: The theory to practice gap revisited.” Physical Educator, 62(4), 212-221.
  • Kostikiadis, S., et al. (2018). “The Effect of Short-Term Sport-Specific Strength and Conditioning Training on Physical Fitness of Well-Trained Mixed Martial Arts Athletes.” Journal of Sports Science & Medicine, 17(3), 348-358.
  • Nader, G.A. (2006). “Concurrent strength and endurance training: From molecules
  • Sheppard, J.M., & Young, W.B. (2006). “Agility literature review: Classifications, training and testing.” Journal of Sports Sciences, 24(9), 919-932.
  • Smith, A.D. (2003). “Peer relationships in physical activity contexts: A road less traveled in youth sport and exercise psychology research.” Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 4(1), 25-39.
  • Wolpert, D.M., et al. (2011). “Principles of sensorimotor learning.” Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 12(12), 739-751.
  • Wymbs, N.F., et al. (2012). “Neural evidence that sequence-specific training enhances learning in developmental dyslexia.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 109(40), 16731-16736.

Mastering the Seated Cable Row: A Biomechanical Approach

We prioritize safety in our workouts, and when it comes to exercises like the seated cable row, that can translate to strict form with limited range of motion. But have you stopped to consider the trade-offs? If these “safe” variations hinder natural movement and don’t improve our ability to function in daily life or sports, do they actually deliver on their promise of preventing injury? And if not, why are we doing them?

Most trainers teach this exercise with rigid posture, fundamentally limiting its functional effectiveness. Instead of instructing clients to remain frozen in place for “safety”, we should encourage more natural biomechanical movement. In practice, coaching this a lot harder than it seems! This article breaks down how it’s done.

The Biomechanical Breakdown

Properly performed, the seated cable row involves a slight forward hinge while maintaining a neutral spine with appropriate lordosis. Key elements include:

  • Keeping shoulders down
  • Maintaining a high chest
  • Slightly tucking the chin

This forward reach contributes to superior lat engagement. Unlike a rigid, fixed upright torso, this technique maximizes back engagement, stimulating multiple muscle groups, including the lats through a greater range of motion:

  • Erectors
  • Hamstrings
  • Glutes
  • Teres major
  • Lower traps
  • Lats (with greater range of motion)

Scapular Mechanics: The Key to Effective Movement

The slight forward hinge allows the scapula to protract, creating a more significant stretch on the retractors. This approach:

  • Reduces arm dominance
  • Strengthens middle trapezius
  • Improves rhomboid engagement
  • Counteracts rounded shoulder posture

The increased forward reach due to the slight forward hinge allows the scapula to protract, leading to a more significant stretch on the retractors, reducing dominance of the arms, and sets up a more powerful retraction, strengthening the middle trapezius. This strengthens the rhomboids for better posture in sports and daily activities, counteracting the common tendency towards rounded shoulders, as upper cross syndrome.

Exercise Progression

An ordered approach for neuromuscular engagement:

  1. Assess Hip and Hamstring Mobility
    Before starting any of these exercises, evaluate and address any limitations in hip flexion and hamstring flexibility with passive assessment and with a standing toe touch.
  2. Planks for Core Engagement
    Stabilize the core and glutes, maintaining a neutral spine against gravity.
  3. Hip Hinge Training
    Practice hip hinge with a neutral spine. Emphasize “pushing hips back,” “maintaining a flat back,” “feeling the stretch in the hamstrings,” and core engagement from the planks.
  4. Scapular Push-ups
    Isolate scapular protraction and retraction without significant arm movement. Execution: From a push-up position, the client moves only their shoulder blades together and apart, keeping their arms straight. Purpose: Builds awareness and control of scapular movement, crucial for the row.
  5. Deadlifts for Full Back Engagement
    Develop overall back strength, core stability, and reinforce the hip hinge pattern under load. Progression: Start with conventional deadlifts using light weight and focus on perfect form. Carryover to Row: Reinforces core engagement, hip hinge mechanics, and the feeling of a strong, stable back. Use dumbbells or a trap bar if barbell deadlifts are awkward.
    Cue a proud chest, packed shoulders, and strong standing posture — this reinforces postural tension under load and carries over to rowing mechanics.
  6. Scapular Pull-ups (or Pulldowns)
    Integrate scapular retraction into a pulling motion with a wide, palms forward grip. Execution: Emphasize initiating the pull by squeezing the shoulder blades together, rather than just pulling with the arms. Scapular pulldowns are a good regression, as the focus should not be on lifting heavy weights. Bridging to the Row: Introduces the pulling motion while maintaining scapular control.
  7. Re-assess Hip and Hamstring Mobility (step 1)
    Repeat hip hinge and core exercises as needed until the core is engaged and hip hinge is fluid and correct.
  8. Scapular Rows
    Reinforce scapular retraction and protraction in a horizontal pulling motion. This can be done with bands, cables, TRX, dumbbells, or even using the Smith Machine by hanging underneath the bar at a 45° angle with extended arms and a tight core and neutral spine (flat back). Keeping straight arms, squeeze the shoulder blades together to slightly pull the body.
  9. Seated Cable Row
    Combining all the previously learned elements into the target exercise. Emphasis: Maintaining a neutral spine with the slight forward hinge, initiating the pull with scapular retraction, and controlling the movement.

Planks: Assessing core strength can be challenging, especially when loose clothing or higher body fat levels obscure visual cues. Starting with planks helps them engage their core, while we assess and correct their posture.

Deadlifts: Deadlifts warm up the entire back and posterior chain, training the mechanical hinging of the hip while maintaining a neutral spine, and promoting full back engagement.

Scapular pushups & Pull-ups: These exercises should not be done to failure, but should be to “wake up” the shoulder external rotators, to stimulate neuromuscular engagement.

Detailed Seated Cable Row Execution

Steps to perfect the movement:

Use the neutral close-grip handle to target the lats maximally.

  1. Sit tall, chest up, feet planted
  2. Tuck chin slightly
  3. Engage core and natural lower back curve
  4. Push hips back slightly (like a deadlift)
  5. Feel the stretch in the lats
  6. Pull your elbows back toward your lower ribs, keeping them close to your sides.
  7. As you pull, bring your torso upright, lift your chest, retract shoulder blades, and keep shoulders down—core tight, no leaning back
  8. Finish with the handle between your navel and solar plexus
  9. Squeeze back muscles hard and hold briefly for a peak contraction
  10. Keeping chest high, chin neutral, core engaged, control the return

Safety

Rounding places stress on the lumbar discs, risking serious injury. To avoid this, the client must not only have the right cues, but a strong core and good hip and hamstring mobility, as weakness and tightness can contribute to poor form. Follow the ordered approach outlined above, beginning with exercises that engage the core and train hip hinge and mobility, and use scapular protraction and retraction to wake those muscles up.

This approach maximizes the seated cable row’s benefits by improving neuromuscular engagement, muscle recruitment, range of motion, and functional movement patterns, in contrast to overly-cautious “safe” variations that limit natural movement and fluidity and don’t translate well to activities of daily life or athletics.

Colima Salt — Ava Jane’s Labeling Error

Colima Sea Salt markets itself as a health-conscious product, with salt “revered by both village people and rulers for its incredible taste and health benefits.” They position themselves as champions of transparency and wellness. But do their practices align with their promises?

My recent experience as a health-conscious consumer suggests otherwise. After inquiring about their lab assay, the report they provided, linked below, indicated an scant 14.8 mg sodium per ¼ tsp, which would mean the product is nearly sodium-free, which is clearly wrong, and so I wrote them a detailed and polite email:

Hello, Elai, AJ’s.

Please help me understand the listed sodium content of 14.8 mg per ¼ tsp for your Colima Sea Salt.

From your lab reports:

The “Summary of Lab Analysis” and the “INORGANIC ANALYTICAL REPORT” have listed inconsistent sodium content levels. The summary lists sodium at 14.8 mg per ¼ tsp, which would mean the product is nearly sodium-free. This is inconsistent with the reported chloride level of 722.4 mg, as sodium and chloride are typically present in a ~1:1.5 ratio for sodium chloride, which would suggest sodium content closer to:

Sodium (mg) * 1.5 = Chloride (mg)
Sodium (mg) = 722.4 / 1.5
Sodium (mg) = 481 mg

Further, the Inorganic Analytical Report (Colima Sea Salt Lab Report (2020)) indicates a sodium content of 266,000 mg/kg-dry. If salt weighs 1.4 g per ¼ tsp, there are ~714 ¼ tsp servings in 1 kg. Thus, the sodium content per serving calculates as:

Dividing that 266,000 Na by 714 yields ~372 mg per ¼ tsp.
266,000 mg / 714 servings = ~372 mg per serving.

This is significantly higher than the reported 14.8 mg per ¼ tsp.

Could you confirm whether there is an error in the reported sodium content or explain how this discrepancy arises?

Thank you for your time and assistance.

Garrett.

After multiple follow-up attempts, Ava Jane’s eventually responded, but did not acknowledge the error and showed a lack of concern regarding their mislabelling. Not a very professional response from a company that outwardly projects health and transparency as a key marketing point.

Colima Sea Salt’s labeling discrepancies highlight a broader issue in the food industry: the routine misrepresentation of products marketed as healthy or natural. Across the board, companies manipulate consumer trust with claims that often fail scrutiny.

For example, Lifeway Kefir’s blueberry kefir implies it contains real blueberries, but it uses “natural flavors” to mimic the fruit. Similarly, Jiffy Blueberry Muffins include imitation blueberry bits made from sugars, oils, and food coloring. Both products are blatant misrepresentations that exploit consumer assumptions.

Such practices persist because they go largely unchallenged. Companies rely on two factors to maintain this status quo:

  • Lack of Accountability: Regulatory enforcement is often weak, and misleading terms like “natural” or “healthy” are used freely without meaningful oversight.
  • Consumer Apathy: Many people don’t read ingredient labels or investigate claims, trusting marketing instead of verifying facts.

The result is a cycle of deception that benefits companies at the expense of consumer health. When even basic products like salt or common foods like blueberry-flavored items can’t be trusted, it’s clear the food industry is failing to meet basic standards of honesty and transparency.

Health Is Personal Responsibility

This isn’t about what government should do. Health is a personal responsibility, and failing to scrutinize food choices has direct consequences. The industry thrives on stupid, careless consumers, knowing most people won’t investigate claims or call out lies. Every time consumers accept dishonest labeling without question, it reinforces the practices that make the food industry so unreliable.

Companies mislead because they can. They rely on the reality that most people won’t take the time to verify claims, and even fewer will demand accountability. Such complacency is why products like Colima Sea Salt advertise wildly inaccurate information while ignoring legitimate inquiries.

If consumers want better, they must start by being better informed and more discerning. Read labels. Question inconsistencies. Demand responses when something doesn’t add up. The food industry won’t change on its own, and companies like Ava Jane’s demonstrate why personal responsibility and vigilance are the only reliable paths to better choices.

High-intensity exercise (HIT) combined with creatine monohydrate supplementation (CM) confers greater neurocognitive benefits than either alone.

Hypothesis

High-intensity exercise (HIT) combined with creatine monohydrate supplementation (CM) confers greater neurocognitive benefits than either alone.

Rationale

Combining HIT with CM may enhance creatine’s transport to the brain, leading to greater cognitive, antioxidant, and neuroprotective effects. This is due to creatine’s ability to cross the blood-brain barrier (BBB), potentially increased by exercise-induced blood flow, vasodilation within the brain, and hormonal responses that further stimulate brain creatine uptake. Querido

This mechanistic basis may provide a theoretical framework for enhancing the benefits of other nutraceuticals.

Exercise Brain Benefits

Exercise boosts cerebral blood flow through vasodilation, increased circulatory volume, and enhanced neurovascular coupling, directing blood flow to the brain regions actively engaged in the exercise. High-intensity exercise improves cognitive function and brain health by increasing cerebral blood flow, BDNF, IGF-1, and osteocalcin. S.E. Browne

Creatine Brain Benefits

Creatine supplementation has been shown to improve cognitive function and provide neuroprotection in persons with neurocognitive impairment. J.F. Sandkühler

Creatine supplementation increases brain creatine levels. During stress or trauma, such as intense exercise, creatine supplementation improves oxidative DNA injury and normalizes brain and body creatine levels. S. Forbes

A 2023 review study published in Sports Medicine found long-term high-dosage creatine supplementation increases brain creatine stores, improves cognition and memory, especially in older adults or during times of metabolic stress (e.g. sleep deprivation), improves aspects of recovery from traumatic brain injury in children, and has the potential to reduce symptoms of depression and anxiety. D. Candow

Creatine has shown neuroprotection in PD patients with cognitive decline via creatine transporter uptake. In a rodent model, high-dosage creatine was shown to exert anti-inflammatory, antioxidative, and anti-aggregant effects on α-synucleinopathy. Y. Leem H. Chang

A long-term, multicenter, double-blind, parallel-group, placebo-controlled, 1:1 randomized efficacy trial for 10g of creatine in PD patients showed benefit to the Unified Parkinson’s Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS) both at 1 year and at 18 months, but eventually terminated early with no determined harm or benefit. K. Kieburtz

To address the nutritional requirements for the demands of the HIT group, each participant will also consume a post-workout protein shake.

Exercise and Cerebral Blood Flow

Aerobic exercise can increase cerebral blood flow and potentially enhance BBB permeability, at least temporarily. For the given volumetric load and intensity of the HIT exercise protocol, cardiovascular output will be high, around 75% HRmax (possibly higher for untrained PD patients, depending on individual motor efficiency). The cardiovascular intensity alone should be sufficient to significantly increase cerebral blood flow and promote physiological adaptations.

High-intensity strength training (HIT) increases IGF-1 levels more significantly compared to cardiovascular training. IGF-1 enhances creatine uptake in muscles, and creatine supplementation further increases IGF-1 mRNA expression in human skeletal muscle, providing a synergistic benefit that supports improved muscle performance and recovery, indirectly benefiting cognitive function through reduced fatigue and better overall physical health.

Due to its high energy requirements, brain cells are susceptible to Reactive Oxygen and Nitrogen Species (RONS), mitochondrial damage, and energy depletion. Strength training produces less RONS due to its reliance on the TCA cycle, resulting in lower ratio of oxidative stress than the amount of cardio required to achieve same cerebral blood flow and hormonal benefits.

Creatine Supplementation Studies

Research indicates that creatine supplementation can improve cognitive function and has neuroprotective effects. However, the dosage and duration required for optimal cognitive benefits are still under investigation.

Combined Effects

Many studies have examined the combined effects of exercise and creatine on muscle performance and recovery, but research on cognitive outcomes is less extensive. The hypothesis that HIT could enhance cerebral creatine uptake is supported by the rationale of increased blood flow and transporter activity.

Enhanced Recovery

Intense exercise and cognitive activity depletes brain phosphocreatine (Pcr) levels. Creatine supplementation can mitigate this depletion and improve recovery from high-intensity exercise, as well as cognitive function. C. Rae, A.C. Passaquin

Decreased Oxidative Stress

CM supplementation decreases oxidative stress by reducing the immediate demand on oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS) and its production of RONS, and by directly scavenging free radicals. H. Arazi

Double Crossover Design Overview

Participants: Individuals with early Parkinson’s disease (PD) and mild MDS-UPDRS impairment, randomly selected into groups:

Sequence 1
  1. HIT + CM
  2. HIT + Placebo
  3. CM Only
  4. Placebo
Sequence 2
  1. HIT + Placebo
  2. CM Only
  3. Placebo only
  4. HIT + CM
Sequence 3
  1. CM Only
  2. Placebo
  3. HIT + CM
  4. HIT + Placebo
Sequence 4
  1. Placebo
  2. HIT + CM
  3. HIT + Placebo
  4. CM Only

Each participant gets all interventions to control for individual differences, reduce the number of participants needed, and ensure every participant receives an active intervention. Each intervention phase is followed by a 4 week washout period and testing, to monitor possible carryover effects.

Duration: 16 weeks is adequate for observing potential cognitive and neuroprotective effects. Exercise Protocol: High-Intensity Training (HIT): Exercises: Olympic lifts and plyometrics. Frequency & Duration: 70 minutes (including warm-up and cool down), six times per week, supervised to ensure safety, form, and protocol adherence.

For transparency, participants must be fully informed about the potential benefits and risks associated with both the active treatment and the possibility of receiving placebo.

CM Supplementation

Dosage: 10 g of CM daily, split into two 5 g doses (pre- and post-workout), during warm-up and cool-down for HIT group.

Approach for Intensity

Initial Assessment

Assess participants’ current fitness levels, physical condition, and any potential limitations. Develop individualized exercise plans based on the baseline fitness evaluation. Strength Assessment: Calculate 10 RM for deadlift, squat, overhead press, bench press, barbell row, and box jump (height in cm).

For box jump assessment tests, calculate vertical jump, then move to a lower height and gradually increase within a safety threshold to the trainee’s comfort level.

For some bodyweight exercises, it is not possible to directly calculate the 10 RM as for weighted exercises. Instead, use the following formula:

max_reps * intensity * target_reps/10

For example, if the client can do 8 pushups and the desired intensity is 80% of 10 RM for 6 reps, do 8 × 0.8 × 6/10 ≈ 4 pushups. Adjust the number of reps as appropriate to roughly match the desired intensity level.

Progressive Intensity

Begin with 50-60% of maximal 10 repetition effort (10 rm), and increase the intensity 5% every 2-4 weeks, with rest between sets below 60s. Target Intensity Range: Aim to reach and maintain an intensity level of 70-85% of maximal effort for most of the intervention period. This range is typically sufficient to increase blood flow and confer cognitive benefits without excessive risk.

Sessions

  • Day 1: HIT + Zone 2 Cardio
  • Day 2: Zone 3 Cardio (40 min ergometer)
  • Day 3: HIT + Active Recovery
  • Day 4: Zone 3 Cardio
  • Day 5: HIT + Zone 2 Cardio
  • Day 6: Zone 3 Cardio
  • Day 7: HIT + Active Recovery

Zone 3 is 30 min of ergometer at 70% HRMax, at the trainee’s convenience.

Zone 2 is 40 min of walking, monitored with a fitness tracker, at the trainee’s convenience.

Active recovery is 10 minutes of walking, monitored with a fitness tracker, followed by a gentle 30 minute group session consisting of a series of instructor-led mobility movements.

Moderate Intensity Exercise (Zone 3) improves increasing cerebral blood flow and cardiovascular health at a reduced injury risk.

Low Intensity Cardio (Zone 2) improves aerobic endurance and promote recovery, ensuring sustained exercise adherence and minimizing injury risk.

Active Recovery promotes recovery, reduces soreness, and promotes relaxation, contributing to program sustainability.

Incorporating moderate or low intensity exercise and active recovery into a high-intensity training (HIT) routine for individuals, especially those with early Parkinson’s disease (PD), can help mitigate the risk of burnout, overtraining, and CNS overstimulation while still promoting various physiological and cognitive benefits. Here’s a proposed routine that balances HIT with cardio and recovery:

Each 70 minute HIT session begins with a 20 minute warm up, followed by 30 minutes of work, and ends with a 20 minute cool down. Warm Up: 15 minutes of working exercises performed at 40–50% of 10 RM for 10 sets of 3-5 and 10 minutes of mobility and light stretching to avoid injury and improve recovery (hang stretch, scapular pushup, cat/cow, walking, box squat, half kneel hip flexor stretch, etc.). Cool down: 10 minutes of low intensity cardiovascular exercise (fast walking) and 10 minutes of stretching.

HIT Progressive Intensity Exercise Protocol

4 times per week, 30 minutes of working sets, 60 – 75s rest between sets for a total of 15 sets.

Weeks 1-4:
Moderate intensity (50-60% of 10 RM) Volume: 15 sets of 10 repetitions
Weeks 5-8
Increase to moderate-high intensity (65-75% of 10 RM) Volume: 15 sets of 8-10 repetitions
Weeks 9-12
Further increase to high intensity (80-90% of 10 RM) Volume: 15 sets of 6-8 repetitions
Weeks 13-16
High-intensity (95-105% of 10 RM) Volume: 15 sets of 3-5 repetitions
Safety and Monitoring

All sessions are supervised by trained professionals to monitor form, intensity, and safety. Feedback and Adjustments: Regularly check in with participants to assess their comfort, fatigue levels, and any adverse effects. Adjust the intensity as needed based on individual responses.

Assessment

Cognitive Performance Tests
Backward digit span for working memory and MDS-UPDRS
MRI
To measure creatine levels in the brain and assess neuroprotective effects.
Blood Biomarkers
IGF-1, BDNF, osteocalcin, and oxidative stress markers.

References

I Solved Hundreds of LeetCode Problems.

I solved hundreds of LeetCode problems (user: dhtmlkitchen). I would solve the daily problem, then create a write up on LeetCode (because if you can’t explain it, you don’t really understand it that well yourself). Next, I would take screenshots of my code, copy the problem description, and post the problem with my screenshots on LinkedIn. 

After several months of doing this, I built up a following of about 155 followers.

LinkedIn Sucks

But LinkedIn groups were full of spam and many low-quality posts. Recruiters aren’t there looking to see who’s the best of the best because it’s all spam and low-quality posts. And for the spam, the only actions LinkedIn Trust & Safety take are against the user who reported, blocking and restricting the reporter and leaving the spam.

Johnson & Johnson & Getting Banned

LinkedIn kept feeding me Johnson and Johnson ads, which is a bit of a sore spot for me. So, I broke my rule of posting only professionally-related things on LinkedIn and posted a comment in the comment box of the J&J ads LinkedIn was targetting me with. 

The comment was to the effect that my mother used Johnson and Johnson shower to shower talc products for the 20 years leading up to her diagnosis with leiomyosarcoma, caused by those products[1].

Johnson and Johnson recently settled a massive lawsuit for these products. However, because leiomyosarcoma is so rare, it was not listed on the lawsuit and I was excluded as a plaintiff.

I was very careful to remain within the guidelines of LinkedIn’s terms.

However, after that, LinkedIn deleted my account.

Interview Prep Matters…

I failed my 2009 Google interview after failing to solve Product of Array Except Self. It’s a challenging dynamic programming problem but once you know how to solve it, it’s not that hard.

…For the Interview

Only a small percentage of technical interview prep has direct practical relevance to the tasks I’ve performed as a Frontend engineer. Some algorithmic problems I’ve had to address as a front end engineer involve n-ary trees, graphs, strings and arrays, which appear on LeetCode. Other algorithms I’ve had to tackle do not. For example, I’ve never seen colorimetry problems on LeetCode.

Other front-end problems involve design patterns, data sanitization strategies, and using strategies to deal with a dynamic deployment environment (web browsers).

[1] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8106926/#T3

Prefix and Suffix Arrays

A Prefix Array, also known as a Prefix Sum Array or Cumulative Sum Array, is an Array with the calculation of cumulative sums of elements in a source array. It stores the cumulative sum of elements up to a certain index in the array. This can also be done in-place, so that the target rewrites values of the source.

Prefix and Suffix arrays are useful for range computations. For example, LeetCode 1608. Special Array With X Elements Greater Than or Equal X

Here’s how it works:

Given an array of numbers, the prefix array would be another array where each element prefix[i] stores the sum of elements from index 0 to index i in the array.

For example, given nums = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5], the prefix array would be [1, 3, 6, 10, 15], because:

prefix[0] = 1                      // sum from nums[0] to [0]
prefix[1] = 1 + 2 = 3              // sum from nums[0] to [1]
prefix[2] = 1 + 2 + 3 = 6          // sum from nums[0] to [2]
prefix[3] = 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 = 10     // sum from nums[0] to [3]
prefix[4] = 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 = 15 // sum from nums[0] to [4]
Code language: JavaScript (javascript)

Here is an example of creating a prefix array in-place, in JavaScript:—

const nums = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5];
nums.forEach((num, i) => nums[i] += nums[i-1] ?? 0);
// [1, 3, 6, 10, 15]
Code language: JavaScript (javascript)

Suffix Array:

A suffix array is similar to a prefix array, but it stores cumulative sums in reverse order. Instead of storing the sum of elements up to a certain index from left to right, a suffix array stores the sum of elements from right to left.

Given the array nums = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5], the suffix array would be:—

suffix[4] = 5
suffix[3] = 5 + 4 = 9
suffix[2] = 5 + 4 + 3 = 12
suffix[1] = 5 + 4 + 3 + 2 = 14
suffix[0] = 5 + 4 + 3 + 2 + 1 = 15

//  [15, 14, 12, 9, 5]
Code language: JavaScript (javascript)

Suffix Array Code

Creating a suffix array function is a little trickier than writing a prefix array. It can be done with a new array or in-place, replacing values of an existing array. Here are both.

function createSuffixArray(nums) {
    const suffixArray = new Uint32Array(nums);
    for (let i = suffixArray.length - 2; i >= 0; i--) {
        suffixArray[i] += suffixArray[i+1];
    }
    return suffixArray;
}

const nums = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5];
createSuffixArray(nums);
// [15, 14, 12, 9, 5]
Code language: JavaScript (javascript)

By pre-allocating a Uint32Array of the appropriate length and iterating over the input array from right to left, I efficiently compute the cumulative sums and store them directly in the suffix array without needing to reverse the array or create intermediate copies. This approach is concise and efficient.

This can also be done in-place.

function createSuffixArrayInPlace(nums) {
    for (let i = nums.length - 2; i >= 0; i--) {
        nums[i] += nums[i+1];
    }
    return nums; // Optional: Return the modified nums array
}

const nums = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5];
const suffixArray = createSuffixArrayInPlace(nums);
// [15, 14, 12, 9, 5]
Code language: JavaScript (javascript)

Applicant Tracking Systems and User Privacy

Applicant tracking systems (ATS) help companies streamline the hiring process.

Although these tools are important for larger companies, unwanted data sharing, blacklisting, and hiring bias can impact job seekers.

But first, some of the benefits of ATSs.

ATSs make it easier for hiring teams to manage and track candidates through the hiring process from start to finish, consolidate and maintain candidate data in one place, automate tasks such as resume screening, scheduling, saves time and reduces costs.

ATSs are scalable. They adapt to the hiring process as needed, handling large volumes of applications and candidates with ease.

They also provide a broader pool of candidates, including passive candidates who might not be actively looking for a job, but can be searched. And there’s the rub.

Privacy and Discrimination Concerns

Applicant data can be shared both within the company and globally, between partner organizations that use the same applicant tracking system.

Applicant data can include resumes, application materials, and notes on candidate interactions to alert companies about concerns regarding qualifications or behavior.

Various attributes within applicant tracking systems (ATS) can be deemed undesirable or potentially harmful to candidates. This information is internal and not publicly accessible.

Some of these negative attributes include “Do Not Hire” flags, negative comments by recruiters or hiring managers, and low compatibility scores determined by algorithms.

People can be unofficially blacklisted by being placed on “do not hire” lists or by having negative notes or attributes associated with their profiles in multiple applicant tracking systems.

Employers that use applicant tracking system generally require applicants use them. Companies may choose to make accommodations for employees who choose not use the ATS but few companies make such exceptions.

To work as an employee at a larger company, one will most likely be required to use the company’s ATS.

Participation in this system means allowing companies to share one’s data among a global network of companies. That can compromise privacy and ultimately impact future employability.

My experience with Applicant Tracking Systems includes being invited to an interview, then being forced to answer a laundry list of demographic questions through ADP, and then being promptly excluded from the interview process. (I’m currently trying to sort this out with ADP.)

LeetCode 1289. Minimum Falling Path Sum II

DP Solution Without Modifying Input — 24 Lines — O(n^2) / O(n)

Problem: https://leetcode.com/problems/minimum-falling-path-sum-ii/

Solution: https://leetcode.com/problems/minimum-falling-path-sum-ii/solutions/5081680/dp-solution-without-modifying-input-24-lines-o-n-2-o-n/

Algorithm

  1. Find smallest two cells of first row.
  2. Loop through remaining rows, rows i+1 to len-1.
  • For each cell, if it’s not the same col index as the prev smallest, add smallest prev cell, low, else, add the second smallest prev, hi.
  • Find next two lowest cells for each next row after adding lowest cells from prev row
  1. Return last lowest cell

Complexity

  • Time complexity: O(n2)
  • Space complexity: O(n)

The lowest values of the prev row are stored in three properties, low, i, hi.

rowValues = {
  low // lowest value (from prev row)
  hi // second lowest value (from prev row
  i // lowest value's index (from prev row)
}

The values of each row are also temporarily stored in an identically-structured object.

const minFallingPathSum = (() => {
    "use strict";
    const findLeastTwo = (row, prev) => {
        const rowValues = { low: Infinity, hi: Infinity };
       for (let i = 0; i < row.length; i++) {
            let cell = row[i] + (i === prev.i ? prev.hi : prev.low);
            if (cell < rowValues.low) { 
                 Object.assign(rowValues, {hi:rowValues.low, low:cell, i:i});
            } else if (cell < rowValues.hi) {
                rowValues.hi = cell;
            }
        }
        Object.assign(prev, rowValues);
    };

    return grid => {
        const prev = { low: 0, hi: 0, i: -1 }
        for (const row of grid) findLeastTwo(row, prev);
        return prev.low;
    };
})();Code language: JavaScript (javascript)