Procrastination is simply setting a task to the lowest priority - lower than checking Facebook and surfing the 'net. Addiction is simply setting a task to the highest priority - just below eating and sleeping, or possibly even above it. Once we realize this, we don't have to take a passive stance on procrastination and addiction:
- procrastination and addiction are simply setting priorities
- ultimately, we control our priorities
- if we want, we can defeat addiction by setting other things as "higher priority"
- ditto with procrastination
Incidentally, when a productive task becomes an addiction, great things can be achieved.
Sunday, November 16, 2008
Monday, June 09, 2008
Sunday, April 06, 2008
- Tabula Rasa -
People want a blank slate. A chance for everyone to forget your previous errors and detours. Blow away all the ugly false starts and build on solid foundation because you know better now.
A mistake. And there are two big reasons why this is a mistake.
1) Everyone messes up. There's no way you can build a tower of perfection right up until you die. By obsessing about a fresh start, the chances of getting anywhere past the foundation is slim. Painters don't toss away the canvass in the middle of the painting - they paint over it. Similarly, a fresh start in software can be suicidal. Netscape decided to redo their code from scratch, lost precious years in effort, and guess where they are now?
2) The Internet has a really long memory. Remember that site you made in Grade 5? Even if it's deleted Google probably has a cached version of it. For an offline analogy: your extremely awkward or negative situations are still remembered by people. In short, your history is less like an Etch A Sketch and more like that fully cached website.
Instead of trying to erase the doodle, it would be more productive to understand why it's there and work with it.
How many times have you tried to clean the slate?
A mistake. And there are two big reasons why this is a mistake.
1) Everyone messes up. There's no way you can build a tower of perfection right up until you die. By obsessing about a fresh start, the chances of getting anywhere past the foundation is slim. Painters don't toss away the canvass in the middle of the painting - they paint over it. Similarly, a fresh start in software can be suicidal. Netscape decided to redo their code from scratch, lost precious years in effort, and guess where they are now?
2) The Internet has a really long memory. Remember that site you made in Grade 5? Even if it's deleted Google probably has a cached version of it. For an offline analogy: your extremely awkward or negative situations are still remembered by people. In short, your history is less like an Etch A Sketch and more like that fully cached website.
Instead of trying to erase the doodle, it would be more productive to understand why it's there and work with it.
How many times have you tried to clean the slate?
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