Dissonance

So I read this

The uncomfortable tension caused by these two opposing ideas — wanting to smoke but also wanting to be healthy and fit — is known as dissonance. As humans, we look to get rid of this uncomfortable feeling. (This is known as dissonance reduction.)
The only way to get rid of this uncomfortable feeling is by a) quitting smoking b) denying that people actually get sick from smoking or c) justifying and rationalizing.

In some comments and it strikes me that I didn't resolve my own cognitive dissonance around smoking but redirected it. Instead of focusing on the dissonance between the damage and pleasure of smoking I shifted to focusing on the dissonance between the pain of quitting and the cost of continuing. The short term pain of quitting smoking is dissonant with the desire to quit but in rolling down the stress curve towards reducing the cost of the habit I think I unconsciously made it significantly easier to quit. I stopped mitigating the smoking dissonance and worked towards mitigating the quitting dissonance. And the only real solution to that dissonance was taking direct action.

Granted that the procedural option I used (stepping back consumption on a week to week basis with no nicotine crutches) probably helped but I suspect the psychology described above played a part in at least making the commitment against the pain of quitting. In other words it pulled down one side of the wall I was trapped behind and allowed me to commit to climbing out.

Then again maybe I'm just an amateur deluding himself.

(some random, generic, inspiring phrase)

Right.



I really should have listened a number of years ago when Lorenzo pointed Joel's blog out.

Then again, my life is quite a string of 'should've listened's starting from about my freshman year in high school. So what does one do. Start when you can, which in this case is now.



Start how you can, which in this case is what I'm doing. Past is past.






Onward.





But first, a plan. Staccato bursts of text it is because right now I simply can't be arsed to do better.

Goal 1: Daily blog. Meaty? No! But something. Even if it's just a basic journal kind of rotgut.

Goal 2: I've got a blasted calendar hanging beside my desk. Just waiting for me to draw a chain on it.



Once again, right now I can't be bothered to properly do the hyperlinks. Maybe I'll come back and fix it. So. The calendar. Chain #1 is going to be the blogging. Maybe by the time Udacity starts the next session I'll be chained up enough to make that chain 2, or possibly 3 if I take to this productiveness thing.



Goal 3: Prime Directive: Haha, not so lofty as that. However it belongs above #1 but I'm loathe to adjust the numbering now. Digression aside, less videogame time. Damnit Grady, it's eating your life. You know it. You knock it down and it rises back up. Discipline, which you also know but have a tendency to exercise only spottily. So. Get to it. It's in print (haha, but close enough) now. Back to easier goals...



Goal 3: Bible study. Just do it. Blog it if you've nothing better to blog, in fact. Daily study is good for you.

Goal 4: Lisp. Start with the book and then move on to goal 5.

Goal 5: Write the Seinfeld calendar as a web app in Lisp. Make it swishy. Then use it. Include accountability functionality. You know what I'm talking about. Link it into Twit'Book and any other social gimmickery looks appealing.

Goal 6: That other accountability app that's been staring you in the face for 4 years or so. Except hopefully by the time you get here you'll be productive enough to make something of the idea.