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another aspect of Darwinian strong Tuesday, June 1 2004
I've been having some motivation troubles ever since I started doing remote web development. It's very hard to slip into "work" mode when you're working from home and aren't observing a fixed schedule. I end up spending much of my time procrastinating. Procrastination is the closest thing there is to cancer growing on a schedule. It metastasizes and spreads, ruining vast swaths of time and making them unsuitable for anything else. The reason, of course, is that procrastination causes guilt about the time that has been wasted, so more time must be allocated for the work being put off. But then this newly-allocated time can be ruined by procrastination. With the cancer of procrastination, it's possible to be completely immobilized by work without actually getting anything done. Believe me, I've been there. My only saving grace is that I can become completely absorbed by projects to the exclusion of all else. I just have to arrive at the point where I am sufficiently engrossed.
Frank, one of my colleagues on this new transcontinental development gig, sent Gretchen an interesting link today, which she forwarded to me. It's about how the right wing has successfully framed the debate about all the issues important to them. The most interesting point raised by this article is that "free markets" don't actually exist anywhere - every market, no matter how free, is governed by rules. The article doesn't mention this, but the only completely free market is the one that takes place between creatures in nature, a system where the strong often eat the weak. Of course, even western society is just a manifestation of Nature, with the government being the strongest, that is, strong enough to enforce the rules in cases where it can see what is happening. But if you want to break the law and get away with it, you can, so long as you are either really strong or really sneaky (just another aspect of Darwinian "strong"). Hell, as someone who hasn't always obeyed laws, I can attest that breaking them can be life-changing and very positive in an individual's life.
One thing this article didn't mention was an important counter-example, how the left has been successful at framing at least one debate, the one about abortion. For pro-choice activists, it was a stroke of genius to change it from a debate about the rights of the unborn to a debate about freedom for adults.
And here's another interesting article, one that disputes two oft-cited instances of supposedly-superior technologies being eliminated by weaker, luckier competition.
The weather for the past few days has been pleasant and somewhat cool, though punctuated by unusually intense thunderstorms. Sally hates them and cowers in fear while they rage outside.
I cleaned out the gutters over the east deck today and discovered that the painters had partially-mangled the gutters' inside-corner angle piece, leaving a gap. They'd tried to fill it with caulk, but the attempt to span a quarter inch void had failed. The problem with hiring people to do work for you is that if they do enough work they always manage to fuck things up along the way, things they're not always competent to fix. But of course, if they think you'll notice, they'll try.
For linking purposes this article's URL is: http://asecular.com/blog.php?040601 feedback previous | next |