1) Expanding my programming capabilities. This is because it's vital if I'm ever to develop one of my other big ideas. I can come up with algorithms and models pretty easily, but am not at the stage where I can put them into a user-friendly, non-command-line format, or build off of others' code (which rarely comes with easy compiling instructions).

I've tried various frameworks, but they're all hard to get started on -- more so than the inherent difficulty of programming would suggest. I follow the instructions just to get it set up, but they always leave out something vital so that I have to get an expert to look at why it doesn't set up right. I've tried Django+Python, the Android SDK, Matlab (incl. with Simulink), and .NET, becoming most proficient with the last two.

It's not all gloomy, though. Some successes: completing a useful internal development project at work that involved setting up a GUI to allow for easy database lookup and clean presentation of data. In technical languages, I've set up something similar but for signal processing and automated generation of relevant plots. I was able to modify a Firefox extension so that I could deftly browse websites from the keyboard alone with one hand (no, not for "that"). Could only figure out how to do it on my Linux box though.

2) "Infiltrating" an anti-rationalist group by purporting to be "one of them". I'm doing it to see what makes these people tick: to what extent they really believe this stuff, how well they achieve their goals (vs. failing in a roundabout way), what kind of useful signaling functions the group can serve, etc. (Obviously I can't go into more detail here, but feel free to PM/email me.)

3) Learning about cryptography (by reading Schneier's Applied Cryptography), hopefully to assimilate it at the 2+ Level. I find it important because it both has practical application, and bears directly on fundamental questions applicable to many circumstances: under what conditions you can make what inferences about a source or the meaning of something; where problem complexity/difficulty can originate, and how to increase or decrease it; what is randomness, etc.

It also trains you to truly understand and represent a system well enough to know its strong and weakest links. I've been impressed at seeing how people with experience in crypto are able to carry its concepts over to a fuzzy, real-world situation and justify counter-intuitive conclusions about why a given practice with actually increase or decrease vulnerability.

4) Experimenting with brain-machine interfaces (got an NIA and the Force trainer, don't laugh). This is because I have an interest in improving interfaces, and want to see what the potential is for removing a major bottleneck in interacting with a computer, or overcoming difficulties. (One idea is to combine NIA with Dasher.) I think there is great potential, both for brain exercise, and for extending expressive capabilities, though a direct brain link.