Self Delusion

Most of us delude ourselves

It is incredibly easy to delude oneself into thinking you are a lot better than you are.  There is a widely quoted study that showed that nearly everyone regards themselves as an above average driver. In fact very few of us regard ourselves as being below average on anything.

This has just been brought home to me when I looked at the statistics for this blog.  I am currently averaging close to zero page views per day.  In fact I am not far off an average of zero views per month.  Last year I managed to get less than 10 page views in the whole of a month.  By any objective standards this blog is a complete and utter failure.

And yet I am able to convince myself that it does have some value.  I by and large succeed in writing correctly constructed sentences and my spelling is pretty reasonable too.  So although it isn't one of the top blogs I can still convince myself that it does have something going for it.

I think that deluding ourselves is a deeply ingrained habit.  It is worth remembering when you read any kind of guru that their grasp of reality is not likely to be all that great.  They may well be sincere and honest, but they are quite likely to be living in the clouds.



Reference

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illusory_superiority#Driving_ability

How To Create Intimacy - Steve Pavlina Blog

Another long and unreadable blog post from Steve.  I struggled to get through it to be honest.  I am not sure how to summarise it other than to say that Steve's approach to relationships sounds pretty standard for a well balanced normal guy to me.  I'd give this one a skip frankly.

http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2012/03/how-to-create-intimacy/

Willpower Really Is The Thing

I enjoyed listening to Roy Baumeister's lecture to the London School of Economics on the subject of willpower.

In studies and experiments going back over 15 years he has shown that the two best predictors of success are intelligence and willpower.  Intelligence is innate and there is not much you can do about it.  Willpower on the other hand is a skill that can be practised, learned and improved.

Increasing My Typing Speed - Up to 37 wpm

The act of simply observing what I am doing and spotting where time is getting wasted is proving to be a very productive one.  Quite apart from anything else I am getting a lot more writing done.  I now have about a dozen and a half blog posts scheduled over my three blogs, which is a nice feeling.  But the most significant benefit I have found is that the activity I am working on is in fact improving.  My typing speed has gone up by about 20% on 14 days.

The Five Whys

I'm reading The Lean Start Up by Eric Reis at the moment. One of the things he talks about is something I have come across before when I worked for a while in Quality Assurance but hadn't really thought about for a long time.

Steve Pavlina - Switching Dimensions

I haven't set this blog up to knock Steve Pavlina, far from it.  I intend to tease out the useful stuff.  And I think there is a lot of useful stuff in there.  But I have to say that his latest blog post on Switching Dimensions really is the most impenetrable load of gobbledegook.   I think I have got it now, but it really took some effort and I don't think that effort was rewarded at all.

A To Do List or a Done List?

I don't think I'm alone in finding the compilation and following of To Do lists to be a bit of a challenge.  I struggle to find the motivation to work on my To Do list.  I have a tendency to write an item on it and then decide to do it, leaving my poor To Do list a bit like an abandoned girl at a dance.  And having written one I am adept at ignoring it.

Calorie Counting - Why It hasn't worked for me yet

I am half way through my six month plan to lose weight, and so far I have only lost a couple of pounds.  I am actually feeling pretty good and according to my wife I am also looking pretty good.  The only thing that is spoiling it is the reading on the scales and the fact that I still have some very tight fits into some of my trousers.

Closure of the Steve Pavlina Forum

This blog is supposed to be about a more rational take on the Steve Pavlina personal development approach.  Basically, I like to fillet out the good bits and drop all the crazy stuff.  I thought that it might be useful to share that kind of thing with other people.  I think that I might not need to do that so much any more.  It looks like Steve is moving a bit more mainstream himself.  This is most obvious in the closure of the forum that he ran linked to his blog.

Learning To Become An Expert Typist Update 1

I am trying to remember to consciously work on my typing speed.  A great tool to do this is a programme called Write Or Die.  (That link is worth following just for the hilarious tagline.) This enables you to set a goal for a piece of writing in terms of both time and number of words.

What Is The Best Way To Live Your Life?

What is the best approach to life on a day to day basis?  Should you wake up in the morning with a well thought out plan that allows you to get the most out of the hours you have available?  Should you concentrate on developing the habits that promise to turn you into the kind of person you really want to be?  Or you should approach the day with a free spirit and an open mind and let the opportunities that come up guide you, taking you to places you would never have dreamed of going?

Learning To Become An Expert Typist

I was listening to a podcast in the car this morning about memory. In it the speaker made a bit of a digression on the subject of learning skills.  We all know the saying that practice makes perfect.  Well as sayings go, it doesn't really hit the mark as perfect itself.