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Ramblings on Narcissism
Yesterday there was a story about me, my RV, and my friends on the front page of the SF Chronicle site. The article was really nicely written and very positive about the whole RV thing. Hundreds of comments were left on the post, and 95% of them were negative. The negativity was absolutely astounding. I…
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Five Steps to Becoming a Leader
I’ve always wanted to be a leader. For the longest time I didn’t know what it actually meant to be a leader, so my aspiration was probably just because I wanted the prestige of being a leader. I guess I also didn’t like taking orders from anyone, so I figured there was no other place…
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What I Learned From Two Frustrating Days of Not Working
For two days, I didn’t do any programming for SETT. The morning of the first day I was busy with other high priority stuff. I finished that up, ate lunch, and decided to work on SETT. But then… I didn’t. I answered emails, played my violin, researched some stuff, and bought some plane tickets. I…
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Using Specific Motivation to Reach Your Goals
One of the worst pitfalls of productivity is to decide that you’re going to execute on something, work on it for some period of time, lose interest, and ultimately quit before you get meaningful results. This happens in obvious cases like writing a book or coding a project, but can also apply to things like…
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Is Life Futile?
A few weeks ago I was in Salem, Massachusetts. It’s a really nice town on the ocean with quaint red brick buildings and lots of trees. It’s also full of shops selling jokey witch knick-knacks, cashing in on the Salem witch trials. The witch trials were three hundred years ago, a mere instant in the…
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Thinking Ahead and Accepting Discomfort
Today was a long day. I had to have a difficult conversation unexpectedly, I had a long flight, a train ride, and when I arrived at my RV, I was locked out. By the time the locksmith got there, I had already tried squeezing through a tiny window in the RV, so I was covered…
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The Silver Lining in Taking Breaks from Work
A big reason that I work seven days a week is to keep momentum going. I know that any day I take off will set me back not only the productivity I would have gotten on that one day, but also the additional time it takes me to catch up mentally to where I left…
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How to Use Self Talk to Reinforce Good Habits
There’s that cliche, “If you think you can’t, you can’t,” or something like that. The idea is that if you decide that you’re not going to be able to do something, you’ll self-sabotage and be unable to do it even if you have the inherent skill or resources. That’s true, but it’s only the tip…
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Thank You
It’s funny how sometimes our biggest faults are invisible to us. When I first heard from a girlfriend that I didn’t express enough appreciation for her, I thought she was overly sensitive. When just about every girlfriend since her said the same thing, I realized it was indeed a fault. I’m single now, but there’s…
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When You Go Off the Rails, Only Go a Little
As imperfect humans constantly trying to stick new habits, we’re all familiar with the concept of falling off the rails. It happens to everyone, sometimes as a conscious decision, sometimes through neglect, and sometimes through defeat. You decide to run every day for a month, nail it for a week straight, and then you just…
