Self-Improvement

In one of my earliest posts to this blog, I wrote about the essential irrationality of decisionmaking, and speculated that a decision made for a reason might not be a real decision at all. Later, I wrote another post exploring the delineation...

I was originally planning to spend a little time this evening on writing a follow up to The Multiple Self, to expand on some points and answer some questions folks posed in the comments, but an interesting thing happened on the way to the computer...

If you’ve spent any amount of time trying to “improve yourself” in any way, you’ve undoubtedly experienced some frustration, in that you discover your “self” isn’t as much of a part of you as it would appear. It seems bizarre – “you” want...

43 Folders: Does this “next action” belong someplace else?: A nice checklist for pruning your “next action” lists of “Klingons” – items that cling to your list day after day without actually getting done.

It’s amazing how hard it is for me to write a well-formed to-do list, at least in terms of David Allen’s “Getting Things Done” methodology. For example, for almost two weeks now my to-do list has included the items “Clean whiteboard” and “Clean...

Yesterday, per my plan, I got in there and tore off some big chunks of the method combination work for generic functions. Just now, I was about to start in on the next phase, which was going to involve some additions to the current doctest to begin...

I’ve been thinking recently about my difficulties with “chunking down” – moving my mind from the general to the specific. I actually don’t have trouble with getting other people to do this; I know all the right questions to ask, and I don’t...

Even if one is not religious, ritual and tradition can be life-enhancing. Both of my parents are dead now, but they live on in my Christmas traditions. My mother had made a practice of a special dinner on Christmas Eve, for example. Definitely not a...

Ah, the sweet smell of success. Earlier this month, I set a goal to complete a broad set of features for peak.web by month’s end. And tonight, I declared victory. It has been an interesting three weeks; an opportunity to explore the difference...

On the first season of the TV show, The Apprentice, one of Trump’s advisors made an interesting statement. A contestant, I think it was either Kwame or Troy, was in the boardroom, trying to justify his actions by giving the reasons for them. George...

Ned Batchelder just blogged about a John Perry essay on “Structured Procrastination”. The theory is that you can get yourself to do anything, as long as it’s something you’re doing to avoid doing something more important.Frankly, the idea disgusts...

Do the Easiest Things First. I’ve long recognized the value of this principle for ticket management situations, but I haven’t given it much thought in my personal life. I do tend to do “easy” things first, but then I run into problems once I run out...