There has never been an easier…or more difficult time to learn. After graduating, few things are as rewarding as learning for its own sake without teachers or grades. But, this presents self-learners with a great challenge — how to make meaningful progress in learning without it degrading into doomscrolling or binge-watching nonsense.

YouTube has the greatest free content on the widest range of topics ever assembled under one roof, but going to YouTube with the intent of learning something new is like going to Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory to buy carrots. You take one step in, and it’s easy to forget you ever wanted to buy carrots in the first place.

Whether you loved school or hated it, a good class had one key component most of the internet sorely lacks, a syllabus. A good syllabus is like a map through a new subject that gets you that discipline’s most essential knowledge and skills in the most efficient manner possible. Without a syllabus, internet learning is like trying to get from Los Angeles to New York on foot without a GPS or street signs. You may have a sense of the direction your goal is, but you’ll likely do a great deal of aimless wandering and give up without more.

Enter Aristotle

So, how do we go about making a syllabus for our learning goals so we can escape the doomingscrolling hellscape that is the modern internet? My recommendation is to learn from the guy who essentially invented the idea of the syllabus, Aristotle. Aristotle was the intellectual grandson of Socrates. Socrates started a thought revolution by being the first Greek to challenge the public’s notion of how they ought to live a just and good life. He wrote no books as he preferred to draw out truth from individuals through dialogue. Everything we have from Socrates was filtered through his student Plato, a playwright turned philosophy acolyte. Plato began the first school in Greece, the Academy. Aristotle was his most gifted student, and he undertook a project unlike any before it, the organization of all knowledge.

Before Aristotle, the Greeks had early notions of math, science, and the liberal arts, but their writings often lacked organization, and teachings on a subject could vary greatly. One of the great tragedies of the ancient world was losing all of Aristotle’s most polished works. What we do have, though, is his lecture notes. The notes are challenging, but show his excellent approach to learning.

Aristotle, like his teacher Plato, started one of the first schools in Greece. He sought to expand learning into every discipline, far beyond the scope of Plato’s academy. To do this, he broke ideas down into parts. His writings can be divided into the liberal arts and the sciences. He would further break them down as follows:

1. Sciences
   a. Cosmology
   b. Zoology
   c. Meteorology
   d.Physics
   e. Etc…
2. Liberal Arts
   a. Philosophy
   i. Ethics
   ii. Metaphysics
   iii. Logic
   b. Rhetoric
   c. Political Theory
   d. Drama

From there, Aristotle broke an individual subject down into its most basic parts. With rhetoric, he divided the subject as follows:

1. The places and locations of a speech
2. The temporal focus of a speech
   a. Future-focused speech- Deliberative rhetoric focused on persuading an audience to take action;
   b. Past focused speech-Forensic rhetoric, obtaining justice or assigning liability in the courtroom;
   c. Present Focused speech-Epideictic rhetoric focused on instilling a sense of shared value and identity in an audience
3. Rhetorical Appeals
   a. Logos-Using the structure of a speech to convey a logical argument where conclusions follow from premises;
   b. Ethos-Means by which a speaker establishes their credibility;
   c. Pathos-Appealing to the audience’s sentiments and emotions

It was only when Aristotle broke something down to its simplest parts that he began to dig in and develop an idea. When you learn like this, in a logical system, you break free from algorithms feeding you content and begin to actually learn. You stop being a consumer of information and finally start becoming a learner of knowledge again.

Applying the System

Aristotle’s project was an absurdly huge undertaking. Few other thinkers attempted to learn and systematize the variety of disciplines that Aristotle threw himself into. The man basically turned himself into the first encyclopedia.

If you want to keep learning for fun, it’s best just to start by identifying your top 2–3 core interests. Let’s take cooking, for example. Before you have chat.GPT make a learning plan for you, start with what you know instead. If cooking interests you, you likely already know a lot more about it than you think.

Grab a notebook and bullet point everything you know about cooking, cooking methods, types of cuisines, and different courses. Once you’ve done your brain dump, organize everything under broad headings like Aristotle would:

1. Cooking methods
   a. Stove-top skillet cooking
   b. Baking
   c. Boiling
   d. Grilling
   e. Etc
2. Cuisines
   a. French
   b. Italian
   c. Mexican
   d. Chinese
   e. Etc
3. Meals
   a. Breakfast
   b. Snack
   c. Lunch
   d. Dinner
   e. Main Courses
   f. Side Dishes
   g. Deserts

Now, without doing any research, you’re ready to start systematically approaching cooking and know what you want to learn. The best next step would be to look at the categories you made and determine which list teaches the best fundamentals.

Beginning to cook by learning fundamental methods of cooking would likely be your best bet, so now, instead of starting with YouTubing cooking videos, a better approach would be to search for videos giving book recommendations on cooking method fundamentals. You should watch two to three popular videos and write down the most common recommendations. Then, Google the same question and write down the most common suggestions.

Set limits for yourself. One of the easiest learning traps to fall into is making endless lists of all the things you could learn. Making a list like this feels like you’re accomplishing something, but you will spin your wheels thinking you need all of the jumping-off points before you can start, and then never start.

Watch two to three videos, read two to three blogs, then consider the two to three most common suggestions. You’d likely end up with Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat, which teaches basic use of fundamental flavors, and The New Haven Cooking School, which walks you through recipes designed to build up core competencies through several different methods of food prep.

Once you get these books, leave research mode and commit to learning from the best sources. If you don’t want to pay for them, get a library card and download Libby; most fundamental books on any subject are on there for free. It is easily the best thing you didn’t know your taxes are paying for. Most states let you get a library card in every county in your state. If you have two or three counties, you can get most books with minimal wait times.

Walking through well-vetted books like these and staying committed to them will make you a better chef than 75% of the population, and that’s just two books into your learning journey.

If you can make it through those, you may move on to cuisines next. If you picked French, you’d see that Julia Child’sbooks still come highly recommended, and if you go Italian, Marcela Hazan’s books are considered the holy texts of Italian cuisine.

Unlike Aristotle, we’re lucky; knowledge has been highly systematized for the last 2,200 years. If we can find the right sources and learn from the structure they set out, we can eliminate the needle-in-a-haystack plague that derails most learning projects. Once you systemize what you’re trying to learn and commit to the best sources, you can tap into the best laid out wisdom on any discipline.

The internet has most of that knowledge available to you, but it’s designed to entertain you, not improve or enlighten you.

So to beat the algorithm and make something better of your limited free time, you are blessed with, pick two to three passions, brain dump everything you know about the subjects, categorize your brain dump, and identify the best jumping off point. From there, don’t go to YouTube to learn the subject; go to YouTube and Google to identify the experts in that subject’s fundamentals, buy or rent a book, and commit to it. Then, supplement with YouTube if necessary once you know exactly what your looking for.

You don’t learn anything new by aimlessly gathering ideas. You learn new things through tapping into structure, getting the best material from the best experts, and taking the cleanest distraction-free path to where you want to go. It’s not the dopamine-inducing realm of infinite possibilities that is the internet, but it works, and it’s so much more rewarding.

I love audiobooks. For the longest time, Audible was my favorite way to listen to them. The app has an incredible selection, great narrators, and it’s nice to own your favorite books.

There’s one big issue that prevented me from using the app as much as I would have liked. Price. Audible offers two tiers of subscriptions, audible plus, and audible premium plus.

Audible plus gets you unlimited access to a limited universe of titles and costs $7.95 a month. Audible premium plus offers the addition of one title from Amazon’s extended collection. Most new releases and best sellers are part of the extended collection. If you want more than one extended collection title in a month, then you will need to pay the sticker price for it. This can often be north of $25.

An Audible subscription may be a good option if you like long, 40-hour-plus books. But, if you go through audiobooks as quickly as I do, you can blow through your one extended edition book. So, for me, I’ve never felt like an audible subscription was worth it. This left me with free audiobooks from Kindle, Spotify, or Youtube.

Then I found an app by accident that changed everything. Earlier this year I made my way into a public library for the first time in years.

I noticed the selection was way worse than I remembered and asked a librarian if she could help me order a book. She asked me if I had heard about the Libby app and explained it housed the majority of the library’s collection.

Libby is revolutionary. I can find most of the ebooks and audiobooks I’ve ever wanted. The app has most new and popular books.

The downside to Libby is you only get 21 days to finish your audiobook. After, you either have to renew it or return it and put it on hold. This is still usually enough time for me to finish even the longest audiobooks I’ve checked out.

Wait times can also occasionally be frustrating. But, I’ve been able to check out the majority of my books within two weeks. Plus, if you are willing to endure occasional wait times, the app will save you the $179.40 a year you would have spent on an Audible subscription.

Signing up for Libby is simple. Download the app and punch in your library card and a bit of contact information and you are ready to get started.

If you don’t have a library card, most libraries let you sign up online. You should be able to get a virtual library card assigned to you in under 5 minutes.

Libby’s collection is funded by tax dollars. Whether you use it or not, you’re paying for this service so it is worth checking out. If you do I hope you enjoy using it as much as I have, happy listening!

I love writing, but I’ve been known to be a frequent producer of typos. Websites like Grammarly have helped me catch errors I frequently miss, but even the best editing websites still struggle to catch common mistakes.

Reading my writing out loud is also helpful, but I find that even then I speed read and miss mistakes. However, I recently realized Medium has an audio feature that reads articles to you.

I stumbled on this feature after I published my last article and thought I’d see how it sounded. To my pleasant surprise, Medium has one of the best robot readers I’ve ever come across. The best part is, that it was a realistic enough voice that it helped me hear how my article would sound if someone else read it.

As I listened, I noticed several new areas of my article I decided to change. While they appeared grammatically correct when I read my article, I realized I could phrase them better after hearing the article read back to me.

The Medium audio feature can be found at the top of each article. Next time you write a story try listening to it and see if you find any ways to improve your piece.

When I failed the test after my first attempt I felt crushed. However, I took time to reflect on what went wrong in my preparations, regrouped, and was able to wage a victorious campaign against the test on my second try.

I’m not a bar preparation expert, but I wanted to share the most important lessons I learned with you that made the difference the second time around. This test can be beaten and I hope some of these ideas can help make a difference in your bar prep journey.

Choose The Right Prep Course

During law school, most students, including myself, had the idea that there were only two options when it came to bar prep: Themis and Barbri. While the occasional black sheep choose Kaplan or even Quimbi, by and large, most students I knew stuck with one of the main two big-box test prep companies.

The truth is, there are countless test prep options at every price point. You should pick the one that works best for you. For many students, that could very well be Themis or Barbri. While there are a handful of differences between the big two, they by and large focus on giving you a rigid daily schedule with lectures and tasks assigned daily. Their method works for thousands of students; however, I found the rigid schedule and lecture system Themis used to be frustrating.

When I took the bar the second time, I knew I needed to try something different. I ended up interviewing several private teachers and settled on a course called Personal Bar Prep, taught by Jay Chavkin. This course addressed several issues I found frustrating with Themis. Themis rotated through a different lecturer for every subject. Some lecturers were decent and others were boring and disorganized. Personal Bar Prep used one great lecturer across every subject which helped me get the same level of understanding on each topic.

Having a private coach meant I also was able to meet one on one with a live instructor when I needed to. Instead of having the rigid and sometimes counterproductive schedule of a big box course, I could get the feedback I needed to adapt my schedule to address my areas of greatest need.

Themis and Barbri heavily market to law students. The sticker price on both courses is expensive. Themis and Barbari know that they have competition in the test prep space and entice students to sign with them often as early as their 2L year by offering early bird specials that can take as much as half of the tuition off their course. While these discounts can be enticing, make sure you do your homework on all the prominent programs and tutors in your state and see which one works the best for your learning style. If you love what you see with Themis or Barbari, jump on those early bird specials, they’re great deals on what for many people will be a great course. However, be honest with yourself. If another course fits your learning style better, that’s the one you should go with.

While it makes sense to consider price when picking a course, bear in mind the cost of taking the bar a second time. Not only are you paying the $677 to retake the bar, students often try not to work while studying for the exam and may have to wait months for results. All told, a second exam can cost thousands of dollars. Therefore, students should pick the course that they feel strongest they can base with based on their learning needs. That being said, I’ve seen programs well over $10,000. While they offered an excellent preparation plan, most courses cost a fraction of this price and will be suitable for most students’ needs. So, make sure you find the best course for you in a price range you are comfortable with.

Learn The Law the Way That Worked In Law School

Getting through law school is an incredible achievement. Once you graduate the bar may seem worse than all the obstacles you had to jump over in law school put together with only months to become competent in 14 subjects, some of which you may not have taken in law school. However, the bar too can be beaten, and if you made it through law school, chances are you developed the study habits you need to do it. Those study habits are likely unique to you.

Don’t sacrifice the study methods that worked in law school. If you used flashcards, make flashcards, if you wrote out outlines, make time to make outlines. If you wrote songs to learn the material, then write songs. Do what worked! When I took Themis they spaced out lectures for a course over a week. This left me with little time to work out making outlines as I did in law school. Instead, Themis lectures came with fill-in-the-blank handouts that did little to help me memorize. The second course I took devoted one day a week to lectures. I watched recorded versions of the lecture and outlined the material in a day. This allowed me to apply the memorization method that worked for me and gave me the time I needed to spend the rest of the week writing and practicing MBE questions.

That being said, find good material to memorize content from. In addition to the personal bar prep lectures, I enjoyed Essay Exam Writing for the California Bar Exam and the Smart Bar Prep Frequency Outlines. These three sources have the advantage of being short enough to actually read and take notes on while also having the overwhelming majority of the law you are likely to be tested on.

Frequency Charts

Learning 14 topics is a daunting task at first, but you don’t need to know everything. That would be an impossible task. You just need to know enough.

Trying to learn it all was a critical mistake on my first time taking the bar. There is only so much you can memorize and the truth is the bar does not treat all rules equally. While the bar has a universe of thousands of rules, only a small fraction of these rules are actually tested on a regular basis.

That’s where frequency charts enter the preparation picture. Frequency charts break down the most commonly tested subjects on each bar exam. During my first time taking the exam, I thought the safer approach would just be to prepare for anything. This made it impossible to fully prepare for the commonly tested subjects that ended up on my first exam.

On my second bar exam, frequency charts became a key part of my preparation. The best resources I found were the Smart Bar Prep Frequency Outlines for essays and Emanuel Strategies and Tactics for the MBE.

The Smart Bar Prep Outlines were indispensable resources for essay preparation. It contained outlines that inform readers what percent of tests an issue has appeared on. Some rules appear as often as one-quarter of tests while other rules have only been tested a single time in the last 25 years. This guide was incredibly helpful in determining which rules deserved the most practice. Additionally, every rule on the guide referenced which previous bars tested on that rule. This allowed me to prioritize learning to effectively write answers to the most commonly tested rules on the bar.

Like the essays, the MBE returns to certain rules more frequently than others. I found that Emanual Strategy and Tactics was the definitive guide to the MBE. I saw my scores make a dramatic jump after reading the sections in this book that corresponded to each new topic I learned. This guide explains the most commonly tested rules tested on the MBE and the tricks bar examiners use to make finding the right answer harder than it should be. Knowing these tricks makes the MBE a whole new test and will help you identify the common patterns on every question. While this book does some substantive review it’s most useful in helping you learn the test and the most commonly tested patterns that appear on each subject.

Writing and Review

I can’t stress how important daily essay practice is. The first time I took the bar, I didn’t write enough. I thought I needed to know the content better before practicing my essays. Don’t fall into this mindset. Write open book if you have to at first, but make sure you practice essays daily. It’s essential to pick a prep course that emphasizes frequent essay practice.

If you’re concerned about having rules mastered try using the frequency outline. Pick a commonly tested subject, learn that rule and then practice the essay that implements it. This will help you to both practice writing under timed conditions and will help you learn the rule better by applying it to an essay.

That being said, bar essays work a little differently than law school essays. They can take getting used to and learning what to write about vs. what not to write about is an art that can be difficult to self-correct on. Often private courses will offer unlimited essay grading which helps to identify issues that you likely would not have noticed if you were reviewing your own writing. There are also websites like baressays.com (available in California) that offer unlimited grading services if your prep company doesn’t offer unlined grading.

MBE-Apply Deliberate Practice

After I completed my substantive review of a new subject my second step was reading the Emanuel Strategies and Tactics chapter for that area of law. I tried to do at least 50 MBE questions a day. This number proved effective because it allowed me to see a large variety of questions throughout my studies while also having enough time to review each MBE question I answered.

Emanuel Strategies and Tactics has 100 questions on each subject and I found their explanations for each subject to be superior to any other resource. However, it’s easy to exhaust their question bank especially when you start working on mixed sets. That’s where you will want to choose from Adaptibar or Uworld for more practice.

Both programs have banks of released MBE questions and show which types of questions you were most and least successful on in each subject. The first time I took the test I failed to take full advantage of Adaptibar, and have to say it is an excellent program when used right.

I used Uworld the second time I took the Bar and also enjoyed the software. Both programs are relatively similar and take slightly different approaches in how they explain questions. You can read about the strengths and weaknesses of each program here to help you make up your mind.

Whatever program you choose, I would recommend sticking to the 50 questions a day minimum goal.

However, MBE repetitions alone are not enough, you must apply deliberate practice. I devoted 20–30 questions a day to the subject I was currently studying and 20–30 questions a day on mixed sets.

I also tried to make time to do remedial sets as I started getting more data on areas I needed to work on. For instance, after answering 500 questions I was scoring over 80% on the negligence questions I answered; however, I was getting about 40% of my defamation questions right. Both Adaptibar and Uworld have the ability to give you question sets just on a particular area which allows you to work on questions on your sticking spots.

Keep in mind that like the essays, the MBE tests certain topics way more than others. Negligence questions are far more common than defamation questions so make sure you plan your remedial work accordingly based on how often a concept is tested. Here is a good MBE topical frequency chart to reference.

Lastly, in the last month or so before the bar, I strongly recommend doing a full, timed 200-question MBE in conditions as close to a testing environment as you can emulate. The first time I took the bar I only did one fully simulated MBE. This wasn’t enough. This is a test of endurance so make sure you find time for the occasional 100–200 question practice session.

I would also recommend using timed practice sessions. Uworld and Adaptibar give you the option to review questions after each answer or at the end of a timed question set. The first time I took the bar I practiced more reviewing after each answer. This approach is too different from testing conditions to be helpful. Reading the explanations at the end is a better simulation of actual testing conditions even on shorter question sets.

Concluding Thoughts

Thousands of people get through the bar each year. You will make it through this. Whether this is your first time or your tenth time taking the bar, it takes courage just to step into the arena with one of the hardest tests in the country.

These are just the tips that worked for me. If this is your first time taking the test, take time to consider what has worked best for your studies in the past and make sure that plays a key role in your preparations. If you are repeating the test, reflect on what you could change and improve on.

With the right plan, resources, and hours spent doing the work, you are going to walk out of the bar an attorney…well at least after a few grueling months of waiting that is. Good luck in your studies and please reach out if you have any questions!

-Jake

The internet is saturated with investment advice, some of which is pretty darn crappy. Bad advice is usually about the latest fad and is reduced to the ash heap of history when short-term gains become massive losses.

However, the best advice endures and is valid through every market cycle. For me, the most timeless investing advice I’ve ever read came from a book written in 1926, The Richest Man in Babylon. There, author George S. Clason tells an investing parable set in ancient Babylon of a pre-historic young investor.

I’d encourage everyone to read the book, you could finish it in a few hours. There are two key takeaways I took from the book. First, save ten percent of everything you make, and second, make your money work for you.

Fortunes made overnight are often lost as soon as they came. True wealth is built brick by brick. Clason recommends saving ten percent of every dollar you earn. While this isn’t possible for everyone, it is an attainable goal. By saving ten percent of your net income, and taking care of overhead with the rest you can begin to stack the building blocks of wealth. Too often, people live one step from finical ruin when they don’t have to. The path to finical freedom involves forgoing instant gratification and building wealth each and every time you are paid.

Once you begin to save ten percent of your income each month, Clason’s story explains how you can put your money to work for you through investment. By investing in dividend-generating assets your money becomes your employee. Dividend-yielding stocks are an essential piece of any portfolio. When you buy a stock, you buy a small piece of ownership in a company. A dividend stock pays shareholders a portion of the company’s profit for every share they own. This allows investors to grow their wealth every time a share increases in value and collect a portion of the company’s profits each time a dividend is distributed.

I’m not a finical expert, but the Richest Man in Babylon was the book that really got me started in investing and is the jumping-off point I would advise any new investor to start with. This is the book you go to if you want to learn the timeless rules that will guide you as you begin trying to make smart long-term finical and investment decisions. For the price of a trip to the library and two hours of your time, this book will teach you the golden rules of investment. While it won’t teach you to get rich quickly, it will make you wealthy if you follow its counsel.

Apple watches likely sparked interest in the wider world of watches. Automatic watches in particular have likely also grown in prominence as a reaction to technology like the Apple Watch. While new devices continue to dominate life, completely mechanical devices like automatic watches seem like a breath of fresh air.

The best modern devices have a life span of 5–10 years and need daily charging to function. An automatic watch presents a beautiful contrast. If serviced properly, an automatic watch can function indefinitely and is entirely powered by the wearer’s own movements.

The barrier to entry to automatic watches may seem high when one considers popular brands like Rolex or Omega with prices easily in the $5,000+ range. However, there are excellent watches to choose from at every price range, many of which can be found for less than $250. So, if you are wanting to try your first automatic watch without breaking the bank, here are 8 excellent options to get started!

1. Seiko 5

No list of affordable automatic watches would be complete without the Seiko 5. While quality automatic watches under $250 are difficult to come by, you’ll be spoiled for choice if you check out the watches in the Seiko 5 collection.

Seiko began manufacturing watches in clocks in 1881 after the company was founded by 21-year-old entrepreneur, Kintaro Hattori in Tokyo. Since then, Seiko has forged an enduring legacy for producing reliable and elegant timepieces at every price point.

While watches in the Seiko 5 line can be purchased for as little as $95, they are well regarded even by serious collectors as an excellent entry point into the world of mechanical watch collecting.

The Seiko 5 line began in 1963. The 5 stands for 5 key attributes that Seiko has promised all watches in this line will deliver an automatic moment, a day and date display, water resistance, a recessed crown at the 4 o’clock position, and a durable case and bracelet.

Since the Seiko 5 was first introduced, the line has consistently lived up to its 5 promises and these watches have been known to run for decades without needing servicing. They are also affordable watches to service when needed due to their widespread popularity.

This family of watches has created something for everyone and has done so while staying affordable. The most affordable Seiko 5’s have a field watch ascetic that is similar to the revered Hamilton Field Khaki for less than half the price.

For around the same price, Seiko makes a larger dressier 5 on a metal band which also looks great on a leather strap. My personal favorite, the Seiko 5 Street, comes with a blacked-out case and dial on a black nato strap. This 5 comes in just shy of $250 and its design is absolutely striking.

The one downside to the 5 series is the strap. With the exception of the street series buyers often report changing straps; however, upgrading often costs less than $30 and will complete this otherwise value-packed and beloved watch.

https://www.seikowatches.com/global-en/special/heritage/

https://www.hodinkee.com/articles/a-seventy-five-dollar-watch-that-looks-like-a-million-bucks

Designed anew for the next generation, Seiko 5 Sports is re-born. | Seiko Watch Corporation

2. Swatch SISTEM51

While Switzerland has a reputation for being a peaceful nation, in 1969 the Swiss were thrown into a long a difficult conflict over the future of the watch market. Switzerland has always been the beating heart of the watch and clock industry. However, 1969 marked the greatest existential crisis the nation’s watch industry had ever faced as this was the year Japan’s Seiko created the first quartz watch movement.

Quartz watches are powered by batteries and are highly accurate thanks to the movement’s incorporation of quartz crystals which help regulate time consistently even when the watch is not worn or wound. When Seiko created the quartz watch, they were not only highly accurate but far cheaper than their automatic and mechanical counterparts.

Newer Swiss companies like Swatch began outperforming mainstay Swiss brands, several of which went under due to their inability to compete. Swatch eventually became so successful that they bought up classic Swiss brands such as Omega, Breguet, Hamilton, and Longines.

Swatch recently released their first automatic watch, the SISTEM51. Swatch's first quartz watch featured 51 parts. For their first foray into automatic watchmaking, they produced an automatic watch featuring just 51 parts, a far more impressive feat considering the complexity of automatic watches. Even more impressive, the SISTEM 51 can be purchased for as little as $120 making it perhaps the cheapest Swiss-made mechanical watch on the market.

https://www.swatch.com/en-us/sistem-fly-yis404/YIS404.html

3. Orient Bambino

The Orient Babino is a cult classic on online watch forums and a common favorite at the sub $250 price point. While Orient is a subsidiary of Seiko they are not as commonly distributed in United States retail stores. However, like Seiko, Orient watches share the same rare combination of affordability, reliability, and great style. They have also become easy to obtain through several online retailers.

Orient’s Babino line focuses on dress watches. At 40.5 mm the Babino is on the bigger side for a dress watch, but most wearers report being satisfied with the way the watch wears on the wrist. All watches in the Babino line also feature domed mineral crystal which gives these watches a great vintage look.

My favorite part about the Orient Babino line is the huge variety of available references. Orient releases their watches in “versions” each featuring several dial and case configurations to choose from. Amazon currently sells versions 1–5 with a total of 23 different configurations to choose from.

My favorite bambino comes from version 2 and features a beautiful cream dial with silver roman numerals. I personally ended up picking this model for my first automatic watch. These watches also feature striking blue hands that look amazing on the vintage dial. The whole collection is worth checking out and packs in about as much value as you can possibly find for an automatic watch that usually sells below $150.

https://www.amazon.com/Orient-Bambino-Japanese-Automatic-Stainless/dp/B01N45HWRM?th=1

4. Spinnaker Croft Automatic

Spinnaker makes gorgeous dive watches with some models that can be still bought for under $250. I love that they capture elements of what I like about popular divers like the Rolex Submariner, Panerai Radiomer, and Omega Seamster while avoiding homage watch territory. Their dials are fantastic and the build quality is top-notch for this price range.

The Hong-Kong-based watch company boasts 300 meters of water resistance on many of their models and utilizes reliable Seiko-based movements.

The Croft Automatic has a beautiful blue textured dial, gilt hour markers, and a domed crystal. Like Invicta, Spinnaker takes design cues from popular brands; however, the croft is more of a creative mash-up than an homage as it takes elements from both Rolex and Panerai in its design. Although the Croft model is currently priced at just over $250, it's frequently cheaper on Amazon.

https://www.amazon.com/Spinnaker-Croft-Automatic-Anchor-Black/dp/B09D7KQRXB/ref=sr_1_3?crid=1HQXSY2B05SSF&keywords=Spinnaker+Croft+Automatic&qid=1654125506&sprefix=spinnaker+croft+automatic%2Caps%2C646&sr=8-3

5. Invicta Pro-Diver

While Spinnaker makes new interpretations of old classics, Invicta is the very definition of an homage watch. They are known best for the Invicta Pro Diver, which is pretty much a Rolex Submariner minus the Rolex grade build quality.

That being said, if you're going to get a sub $150 Rolex homage, Invicta is worth serious consideration. Invicta uses reliable Seiko movements and is a fantastic watch for the money if you are looking for your first automatic dive watch. They can even be found as cheap as $85!

https://www.amazon.com/Invicta-Diver-Collection-Automatic-Silver-Tone/dp/B001E96DHA/ref=pd_lpo_2?pd_rd_i=B001E96DHA&psc=1#customerReviews

6. Zeppelin Hindenburg

Zeppelin is a relative newcomer to automatic watches but makes some great vintage-inspired timepieces. While there are several watch brands such as Breitling and IWC that celebrate the shared history of airplanes and watches, Zeppelin’s brand as you may have guessed is inspired by another aircraft…the zeppelin.

Zeppelin is a creation of German parent company, POINTec. POINTec launched multiple lines of affordable, yet high-quality watches after their founding in 1987 and their brand Maximillian Munchen became a leader in radio-controlled analog watches.

In 2003, POINTec started the Zeppelin brand. Their most popular model is currently the Hindenburg. However, unlike its namesake, this watch is merely a classy-looking dress watch and unlikely to become a fiery death trap.

I would recommend the Hindenburg 8062–5. This model comes on a classy brown leather strap with cream threading and a cream dial. The lollypop hour hand also gives it a unique yet classic touch. The Hindenburg’s silver Arabic numerals are also my favorite hour makers of any watch on this list.

The Hindenburg is powered by the reliable and respected citizen Miyota 821A moment. This movement is a common go-to for independent watchmakers due to its sturdy build quality and ease to service. You can even see the movement at work thanks to the watch’s exhibition case back.

https://www.watchexclusive.eu/en/lz129-hindenburg/2152-zeppelin-lz129-hindenburg-automatic-8062-5-watch-4041338806250.html?SubmitCurrency=1&id_currency=2&utm_campaign=GADSCampaign&utm_source=GADSSource&utm_medium=GADSMedium&gclid=Cj0KCQjwnNyUBhCZARIsAI9AYlED-1Junw4ox_EfrOpLTLBJWHUIIsAM5VqzNL5IDDlCuuqtVv89pnIaAk53EALw_wcB

Zeppelin Watches: A German Brand Inspired By Vintage Airships | Prowatches

7 and 8. Timex M79 and Timex Marlin Automatic

Timex was founded in 1854 and is by far the oldest watch manufacturer on this list beating the runner-up Seiko by nearly 30 years. While the Waterbury, CT watch company is most known for their affordable quartz watches, they have recently partnered with the celebrated designer Todd Snyder to reinterpret two of their old classics, the Marlin and the Q for a modern audience. Timex is the only brand with two entries on this list.

The Q was originally a quartz watch featuring an integrated bracelet and rotating bezel. Synder reinterpreted two new lines of the Q, dubbing the mechanical variant the M79. The M79 features a red and black Pepsi bezel and a blue and black batman bezel. The red and blue Pepsi dial is limited to the quartz version of the watch. Personally, I think a mechanical Pepsi dial version of the watch would have been a huge win for Timex and hopefully, they will consider releasing one in their next update to the collection. M79’s can be purchased for just under $250.

Snyder also helped Timex rerelease their once hugely successful Marlin, a hand-winding watch from the ’50–’80s. Snyder released a modern 32 mm hand-winding Marlin and a large variety of modernized Marlins with automatic movements. The automatic marlins are each 40 mm and feature a wide variety of simple classic looking dials that make them ideal dress watches. Most of the Marlin line can be purchased for around $200.

Timex M79 : https://www.amazon.com/Timex-Black-Blue-Silver-Bracelet/dp/B08DMN6WZ8/ref=asc_df_B08DMN6WZ8/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=475739508624&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=14975327011406301577&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9032529&hvtargid=pla-996577235196&psc=1

Timex Marlin Automatic: https://www.timex.com/browse/collections/marlin/shop-marlin-automatic/

I hope you enjoyed the list and found an automatic watch that feels like the right jumping-off point for you! This was my first article on watches. If you want to see more watch-related posts let me know in the comments, thanks for reading!

*All links and pictures are purely for educational purposes, I am unaffiliated with any of the companies mentioned in this article.

Rissoto is genuinely incredible. It is basically a savory rice porridge and one of the ultimate comfort foods. If you’ve never tried risotto, you should stop reading and head to your nearest Italian Restaraunt and eat some!

Cooking risotto isn’t just a recipe, it is a technique. While the technique isn’t too difficult, the dish can be trickier than other recipes if you don’t follow a few basic fundamentals. The first time I tried making risotto was a salty crunchy disaster. I found a great recipe in The New Haven’s Kitchen Cooking School Cook Book that helped me get my risotto just right.

Whatever recipe you decide to follow make sure you remember these four key secrets to master your risotto game!

1. Get the Right Grain

When I first tried making risotto I attempted to use ordinary brown rice. Little did I know, I committed the cardinal sin of risotto making. Rissoto is a classic Italian recipe and calls for an Italian grain known as arborio.

Rissoto relies on slowly integrating liquid into the rice cup by cup instead of submerging it in water. This technique allows the rice to absorb a maximum amount of liquid. Arborio is much more absorbent than normal rice and quickly absorbs liquid. It is essential in making risotto right.

2. Don’t use Bullion

Over salting risotto is incredibly easy. Unslated chicken stock or broth is the ideal risotto-making liquid. Don’t try using bullion instead. Bullion is far saltier than broth or stock and will make the dish too salty. Instead, use bullion or stock and salt to taste.

3. Just Keep Stirring

Once you are ready to add your rice to the pot, you absolutely must keep stirring. Arborio absorbs liquid quickly and will burn if you stop stirring for more than a few seconds.

Rissoto takes around 20 minutes to make and is a bit of an arm workout, but well worth the effort!

4. Use Fresh Parmesan Cheese

The last step to making risotto is adding parmesan cheese. This is where the magic really happens. The parmesan is integrated into the creamy rice and forms a thick, gooey, cheesy sauce-like texture. Fresh parmesan melts easier. I would recommend using a micro planer to finely grate parmesan right into the pot.

No matter what risotto recipe you choose, these four tips will help you get your risotto just right! I hope you give making risotto a shot and let me know how it turns out, your inner Italian rice love won’t be let down!

For more stories on cooking follow me on Medium or Twitter, thanks for reading!

As a law student, you do a lot of reading. That reading usually consists of up to a hundred pages a night of reviewing old appellate and Supreme court decisions. It's easy to get overwhelmed.

Like many law students, I found myself adding even more reading to my schedule by skimming through books like 1L of a Ride and A Short and Happy Guide to Being a Law Student. These books belong to a nitch cottage industry writing self-help material just for stressed-out law students.

Through a lot of trial, error, and support, I learned to apply a model taught throughout American law schools known as IRAQ (Issue, Rule, Analysis, Conclusion) to condense hours worth of reading into easily referenceable and digestible case guides called briefs.

As someone who has often turned to books for help, I realized IRAQ was not only an effective tool for condensing cases but also a great way to create reference material for reviewing helpful books on every subject.

Popular self-help books and Supreme Court cases may not seem to have much in common. One is written for the general public in easily accessible language and the other is aimed at lawyers and judges in layers of legalese.

However, a great court case and a great self-help book are actually pretty similar. Both are written to address a central issue or core set of issues. Each puts forth a set of rules, best practices, and analogies that have previously been written on the subject.

The rules are then applied to the problem to reach a resolution and a conclusion that can be used to resolve future similar issues.

A well-written court case tends to be cited again and again just like books like Think and Grow Rich and How to Win Friends and Influence People continue to be referenced decades later.

One of my favorite teachers in college told us that there are two types of knowledge, what you know, and what you know how to find. Most of what we attempt to learn either ends up in the second category or gets lost because we lack a system to retain and review the information. The value of the IRAQ system was making the important information gleaned from hundreds of pages easy to access and it is a model that can be applied to anything.

It took trial and error to learn how to not stay up all night taking notes on everything and instead key in on the relevant parts of a case. However, the students that learned to write good briefs were later able to condense those briefs into outlines that allowed us to ace cumulative closed note tests that covered thousands of pages of material.

Some of the most useful information in the world can be found in great self-help literature, but it won’t do you any good unless you know how to organize the key rules from the material into a format that you can truly learn and apply. This is how reading self-help like a good law student reads a case can help you get more out of any reading material you pick up.

Case briefs summarize one or two key issues presented in a case and help students remember and understand the main themes presented in them. Briefs are typically only a page. As you read self-help books, you can follow the format below to make one-page summaries of each chapter or key idea in a book to help you effectively reference and retain what you read. Briefs are meant to provide structure to what you read and when practiced effectively help you to quickly identify what’s worth taking notes on so you don’t spend hours recording tangential information.

#1-Reading to Read

It may seem counter-intuitive, but often the easiest way to read a text faster is to read even more than just the text itself.

Before starting a case, law teachers recommended we carefully read the introduction to the casebook chapter to know what issues will likely be covered in the proceeding pages. Details such as noting the court that heard the case and the members of the court that wrote the majority opinion also gave important insights into what you could expect in the case.

Skimming the case before reading was a good way to quickly learn the organization of the case and prime yourself to read difficult material.

I would even read books known as hornbooks that summarized cases and concepts before reading in order to gain a better understanding of an idea before trying to decipher it from a case.

While reading a summary is no replacement for doing the work of interacting with a difficult text, it can make reading the text a lot easier by helping you understand the main ideas in a text.

When reading self-help books, reading about the author is a useful way to learn why they are worth listening to. Thousands of popular self-help titles are published each year. Make sure the author is worth giving your time to.

Reading the book forward and introduction are helpful to know the main themes presented in a book and will prepare you to read. Furthermore, reading a summary of the book beforehand will help you to the sections of the book that deserve serious attention and help you to read faster.

#2-Issue

Each case a student reads in law school is written to address a specific legal issue. Issues may range from “what standard should the court apply when hearing a negligence case involving medical malpractice” to “what factors determine whether an anonymous informants tip may be used as the basis for establishing probable cause for a warrant.”

While issues vary greatly between cases, it is imperative to identify the central issue the court is trying to address because their entire analysis will center around resolving that issue.

Self-help books are all written to address a specific issue or set of issues. The Miricle Morning focuses on the issue of what are the best practices for rising early. The Intelligent Investor focuses on the issue of what is a “value stock” and why they are good long-term choices for a portfolio. The Art of Learning is about which principals apply to skill learning across multiple domains.

You get the idea. Understanding a book’s issue that is being addressed will guide you in understanding the different solutions put forth to address that issue.

#3-Rule

Courts write opinions to resolve the issue presented in the case. To reach a resolution, court’s do not arbitrarily create new rules. Instead, judges refer to a variety of similar cases and extract rules from them that may be helpful in reaching a resolution in the present case.

By using “case analogies” judges are able to find principles in old cases that can be used as tools to resolve the current problem.

Once judges have identified an applicable set of rules, they apply these rules to resolve a new problem based on rules that were used to apply analogous problems in older cases.

In the art of learning, Josh Waitzkin was a child chess prodigy who later went on to become a champion in the unrelated field of a martial art known as tai chi push hands. Josh described learning the rule of deliberate practice in chess and applying it to tai chi push hands. While at first glance, these disciplines were distinct, Josh used the metaphor of chess to extract the rule of deliberate practice and applied it his martial art studies with great success.

When an author relates a story, they are often using it as a vehicle to express how a rule was applied in a previous situation. Look for the rules or principles that are shared and take note.

#4-Analysis

When the court identifies sufficient rules to resolve the present solution, they apply them to their present controversy. In law school, we call this section the analysis. Reading an analysis helps law students to better understand how the rules can be used to resolve issues. Furthermore, often the court reaches new rules that are the logical result of applying prior rules to the present situation.

When taking notes on a self-help book, once an author has identified a set of principles, you should take note of how they use the rules to resolve the issue originally presented and watch out for any new rules that the analysis leads to.

#5-Consluion

The conclusion, or holding, as it's called in a case is the ultimate conclusion the court reaches on an issue.

When taking notes on a self-help book, you should include a short one-sentence statement that summarizes how an issue was resolved. This statement can be a quick reminder of the most important principle to take away from each chapter or book you read.

#6-Synthesis

In law, cases rarely exist in isolation. Instead, they are part of families of cases. An important case like Miranda v. Arizona on protection from self-incrimination has had countless cases either cite to it or expand upon the doctrines in Miranda.

After reading a family of cases, law students create an outline tracking a family of issues. An outline for 5th Amendment cases branching off of Miranda may only be a 1–2 page summary of all the rule statements needed to memorize Miranda issues. For each issue under Miranda, I would only include the rule statements and holding from a case. So a 10–20 page case becomes a 1–2 page brief, and a 1–2 page brief gets boiled down to 3–5 lines of an outline containing the indispensable rules worth memorizing.

Miranda is taught in criminal procedure and covers the rights of the accused in criminal investigations and proceedings. An outline for all of criminal procedures may be 20–30 pages long and summarize over 1,000 pages of reading assigned through the semester. Keeping good outlines helps law students memorize vast amounts of information for recall on tests.

Outlines are fantastic reference tools and the process of outlining helped me immensely when I was trying to memorize material.

Likewise, I have found self-help books rarely exist in isolation. Classics like The Intelligent Investor have countless books that further elaborate on the merits of value investing. If you took briefs on several books on value investing, you could summarize your briefs into outlines condensing value investing to a few pages worth of central principles.

Furthermore, the value investing section may be part of a larger outline on investing contacting sections on day trading, options, crypto, mutual funds, or whatever other investing-related topics you may choose to read about.

Using the briefing and outlining method, you can create 20–30 page topics on any topic that interest you and have the best material written on any topic easily referenceable and at your fingertips. This method helps law students biol down thousands of pages of material and it will work for you if you work to apply it!

Thanks for reading! To read more of my stories follow me here on medium or on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/JakeStoeltzing