Dilettantism

Whether it's short attention span, lack of rigour, being easily distracted by bright shiny objects, being an idea junkie or whatever, I have always been the kind of guy who has a pile of half read books next to the bed chasing after whatever has most recently caught my fancy.

Which is why I enjoy windbagging so much. Shooting the breeze, over the odd wobbly pop, lets you indulge the novelty seeking part of your brain, and the part that seeks social status from sharing - the combination that has made twitter and facebook so successful (see 'discovery is the new cocaine').

As a result I've started many projects only to abandon them at the first second or third sign of resistance. Internet marketing guru Seth Godin has written an interesting thing that I won't be able to find again about how to choose between projects we should abandon as early as possible - because, well, they're bad ideas - and projects that we should push past the resistance to complete. I'll post the link if I can find it again but haven't really internalized what he said so maybe it was full of shit anyway.(alright it was easy to find)

So as with all that is good and true in life, you frequently have to rediscover and relearn the basics every day. Like watching what you eat, what you spend, exercising - like using little tips and tricks like to do lists and pomodoros (the weird little 25 minute tomato timer thingy actually works, that's a BUY) … you need to practice righteousness basically. And each piece of the puzzle makes achieving the next piece easier. When you're hungover it's hard not to eat compulsively, when you're overspending its hard to make plans for the future that involve taking on financial risk…

I've often thought in terms of local minima and maxima

- the way physicists sometimes (or used to) describe space-time - how massive objects essentially distort the fabric of space via gravity, pulling smaller objects towards them. I've often thought life was like that - at any given moment, the sum of many factors determines how hard certain things are to achieve. When you're 90% of the way to the top of a hill it's easier to motivate to take another step than when you're contemplating the peak from the bottom.

In biology they talk of activation potentials in neurons.

That in order to fire, a neuron has to receive a certain threshold of stimulus. For instance the pain sensors in your brain send signals to pull your hand away if something is 'very hot' reflexively, but leave it up to other systems if it's just comfy.

This can also be described as inertia - the tendency of a body to keep doing what it's doing. If its sitting still you need to overcome inertia to get it going - if it's in motion, you need to overcome its inertia to make it stop. Which has its analogy in psychology like when people say 'I get more done when I'm busy' - because you're already in motion. Have only one or two things to do of a day, and you're watching tv in yesterday's underwear…(PHOTO DELETED)

All of which is to get back to taking action - and you can see from this bloated prose that I'm still mining the old navel - the need to practice decisiveness. To see things through.

Not to abandon reflection - because the unexamined life is not worth living and my jaw hits the floor how so many people seem to completely lack the capacity for self-questioning - but passivity is crap also. You can let yourself be swept onto the rocks, or exhaust yourself struggling against the stream. Or you can lash a couple of sticks together, stick your hand in and steer. You'll go over the waterfall eventually and merge back into the infinite, but you might get to visit a few more places of your choosing along the way.