Current mood: calm
"Over time I've realized that you can only understand life backwards but you have to live it forwards." I don't remember where I heard that but I think it's pretty profound.
4.15.2008
4.13.2008
Bad Habits
Current mood: argumentative
Its funny but I was just thinking about bad habits today. It seems like people are the only things on earth that create their own bad habits.
More on this later perhaps....
Its funny but I was just thinking about bad habits today. It seems like people are the only things on earth that create their own bad habits.
More on this later perhaps....
4.10.2008
Admitting your own Personal Suck
Current mood: enlightened
I just realized something the other day. It always bugged me and I couldn't quite explain what it was. Some seemingly random (lucky?) people have become really good at identifying their weaknesses and developing the compensatory psychic muscle needed to shore up their vulnerabilities. Forget stuff? Write stuff down. Get easily distracted? Set a timer. Burdened with pointless interruptions? Leave the office. Find the erroneous code in your system and eliminate the bugs. Find the quickest, minimalist, most elegant solution that could possibly work. Can it really be that simple? Sure, to an outsider looking in, it's all "no duh" stuff, right? I mean, why would anyone need to be reminded that things can be written down on cards and kept organized? Well, to be honest… A lot of us need a unexpected amount of reminding. Seriously. How do some people stay skinny so easy? How can some people draw anything they see? Why are some people math whizzes? How can some people be so funny with little or no effort? If you ask these questions to any of those people with those skills you yearn for, you'll probably end up the same answer every time: "I dunno. It's just how I am." And so the rest of us generously proportioned, uncreative, math-retarded, not-funny people stare and stew like the loser in the old Charles Atlas ad. "Why can't I have that?" Because, you can't just turn it on and instantaneously become what you wish you were. It takes reflection, consideration, reiteration, and a personal dedication to facing the stuff at which you suck. And everyone sucks at something. You totally suck at something. Don't let it discourage you. Interestingly enough, I found an interesting article online that talked about how the application of two totally opposite ideas can have the same effect on a problem. Think about this:
"Outline: Plan everything you're going to write, scene by scene, all the way through to the end. Do your research while you're outlining, so by the time you start writing the actual story, you're already living in that world. With a detailed enough outline, the actual writing becomes a matter of choosing the right words to describe what you've already decided to tell. You can concentrate on style and let the plot take care of itself, because you've already done that part."
"Don't outline: Don't plan ahead at all. Feel the lure of the blank page. Trust your instincts and dive into the story, and don't look back until you're done."
(http://sfwa.org/writing/strategies.html)
It's not about one being smart and the other dumb. It's about understanding what's really significant and helping a given person solve a given problem. Your brain and its behavior isn't some kit you can put together from a page of plans. You're always thinking, obsessing, and changing as you go through your day. There's more than one path, and, dimes to donuts, you'll sooner or later end up losing it if you try to find just one. I guess I'm saying I like the idea that once you've started owning up your "individual suck," you can sample from an endless list of options of tricks that may or may not help you make your life better. As long as you don't lose any fingers and can still get most of your work done on time, where's the damage in experimenting? Try something. Then try the opposite. Then try the orthogonal. Every bit that falls short teaches you a little something that might come in handy some day. As they say, mistakes can be a buddhist gift.
The only damage you'll find more difficult to repair comes from the doors you've decided to close forever. Try patching your own "individual suck" with crazy, ridiculous, incredibly obvious solutions. You'll learn where your problems are and eventually you'll probably have a pretty good idea where the solutions are hiding too.
Onwards…
I just realized something the other day. It always bugged me and I couldn't quite explain what it was. Some seemingly random (lucky?) people have become really good at identifying their weaknesses and developing the compensatory psychic muscle needed to shore up their vulnerabilities. Forget stuff? Write stuff down. Get easily distracted? Set a timer. Burdened with pointless interruptions? Leave the office. Find the erroneous code in your system and eliminate the bugs. Find the quickest, minimalist, most elegant solution that could possibly work. Can it really be that simple? Sure, to an outsider looking in, it's all "no duh" stuff, right? I mean, why would anyone need to be reminded that things can be written down on cards and kept organized? Well, to be honest… A lot of us need a unexpected amount of reminding. Seriously. How do some people stay skinny so easy? How can some people draw anything they see? Why are some people math whizzes? How can some people be so funny with little or no effort? If you ask these questions to any of those people with those skills you yearn for, you'll probably end up the same answer every time: "I dunno. It's just how I am." And so the rest of us generously proportioned, uncreative, math-retarded, not-funny people stare and stew like the loser in the old Charles Atlas ad. "Why can't I have that?" Because, you can't just turn it on and instantaneously become what you wish you were. It takes reflection, consideration, reiteration, and a personal dedication to facing the stuff at which you suck. And everyone sucks at something. You totally suck at something. Don't let it discourage you. Interestingly enough, I found an interesting article online that talked about how the application of two totally opposite ideas can have the same effect on a problem. Think about this:
"Outline: Plan everything you're going to write, scene by scene, all the way through to the end. Do your research while you're outlining, so by the time you start writing the actual story, you're already living in that world. With a detailed enough outline, the actual writing becomes a matter of choosing the right words to describe what you've already decided to tell. You can concentrate on style and let the plot take care of itself, because you've already done that part."
"Don't outline: Don't plan ahead at all. Feel the lure of the blank page. Trust your instincts and dive into the story, and don't look back until you're done."
(http://sfwa.org/writing/strategies.html)
It's not about one being smart and the other dumb. It's about understanding what's really significant and helping a given person solve a given problem. Your brain and its behavior isn't some kit you can put together from a page of plans. You're always thinking, obsessing, and changing as you go through your day. There's more than one path, and, dimes to donuts, you'll sooner or later end up losing it if you try to find just one. I guess I'm saying I like the idea that once you've started owning up your "individual suck," you can sample from an endless list of options of tricks that may or may not help you make your life better. As long as you don't lose any fingers and can still get most of your work done on time, where's the damage in experimenting? Try something. Then try the opposite. Then try the orthogonal. Every bit that falls short teaches you a little something that might come in handy some day. As they say, mistakes can be a buddhist gift.
The only damage you'll find more difficult to repair comes from the doors you've decided to close forever. Try patching your own "individual suck" with crazy, ridiculous, incredibly obvious solutions. You'll learn where your problems are and eventually you'll probably have a pretty good idea where the solutions are hiding too.
Onwards…
4.01.2008
Stop whining....
Current mood: annoyed
I guess I'll write - since it's on my mind today - that I'm realizing how much it pays to stop and pay attention whenever you hear yourself mentally whining.
Nobody likes a whiner, even when it's yourself. So it makes sense to be attentive to amount of which your internal monologue is becoming personally insufferable. As with body odor and not flossing, chances are good that others have already noticed things about you before you have, so - you know - congratulations on making it to the party.
Furthermore, and possibly more importantly, that whining should be telling you something. Whining is the white smoke in your tail pipe that means you're wasting mental oil. It means you're unconsciously allocating cycles to something that you cannot, would not, or should not be wasting your time thinking about. Otherwise, why would it be bothering you, right? You'd be either free of it or done with it.
Once you pinpoint where that whine's coming from, that's the perfect opportunity to decide what the hell the hang-up is. Because if it's worth whining and droning about, it's worth deciding what obstacle (barrier?) in either the "real world" or your own brain is keeping something from happening.
And once you figure out that obstacle, there's more than enough methods that exist to help you accomplish what you need to get passed it all in a way that's sane and sensible. But you can't finish a task you don't fully understand, so allow yourself the personal comfort of unpacking the problem behind the problem.
Put automotive-wise? Compulsively adding a new bottle of oil every other day doesn't repair your smoke problem: it feeds it. As an alternative, use the smoke as a warning that it's about time to trace the cracks in your engine.
As for me? Ya… Now I'm feeling a little better and a little less whiny.
Onwards…
I guess I'll write - since it's on my mind today - that I'm realizing how much it pays to stop and pay attention whenever you hear yourself mentally whining.
Nobody likes a whiner, even when it's yourself. So it makes sense to be attentive to amount of which your internal monologue is becoming personally insufferable. As with body odor and not flossing, chances are good that others have already noticed things about you before you have, so - you know - congratulations on making it to the party.
Furthermore, and possibly more importantly, that whining should be telling you something. Whining is the white smoke in your tail pipe that means you're wasting mental oil. It means you're unconsciously allocating cycles to something that you cannot, would not, or should not be wasting your time thinking about. Otherwise, why would it be bothering you, right? You'd be either free of it or done with it.
Once you pinpoint where that whine's coming from, that's the perfect opportunity to decide what the hell the hang-up is. Because if it's worth whining and droning about, it's worth deciding what obstacle (barrier?) in either the "real world" or your own brain is keeping something from happening.
And once you figure out that obstacle, there's more than enough methods that exist to help you accomplish what you need to get passed it all in a way that's sane and sensible. But you can't finish a task you don't fully understand, so allow yourself the personal comfort of unpacking the problem behind the problem.
Put automotive-wise? Compulsively adding a new bottle of oil every other day doesn't repair your smoke problem: it feeds it. As an alternative, use the smoke as a warning that it's about time to trace the cracks in your engine.
As for me? Ya… Now I'm feeling a little better and a little less whiny.
Onwards…