Sometimes I feel pressured to write since it feels like I have nothing new to say, I just wrote the last week’s. Other times, like today, I can barely remember the last one, it must have been a long week that I feel I haven’t written in ages.
I wonder what factors go into that? How would you even begin to track? Is this one of those things you just have to start tracking all the details and you can kind of infer it?
You see the x-maxxers for fitness, productivity, things like that who KPI dashboard-ify their entire existence online a lot. Not often in real life. How many day walkers are out there? Friends and family who are obsessively logging and tracking quotidian minutia but in secret — they must exist…unless it’s only performatively on LinkedIn.
I have tracked a few things over the course of my life, but I can’t say it’s ever really built habits. It helps in the short term but it is a chore that quickly de-thrills whatever you’re chasing — word counts, calories, learning streaks, etc. It works for some, I think Seinfeld is a classic example, I’ve heard other writers, Murakami too, maybe?
Perhaps I’m not destined for greatness because I can’t organize like that. I’m pretty consistent if I want to be and if I’m not, then why did I want to be in the first place?
This is where some passive tools will come into handy — step counters on your phone, word counters online, Duolingo…but these not only require consistency within you, they require consistency in the tools or devices you use. For now. This will certainly change as technology improves. I wonder if I could con myself into better behavior — I’m not even sure I know what I’d want to work on. Languages are fun, but going to a country to practice is more fun than an app that checks you. Some type of fitness & diet tracker that worked in the background would be great, but I’m never going to start logging everything I eat or start wearing a watch while doing workouts. I’ve tried t, it’s not comfortable, they die on you, not my cup of pre-workout. I don’t take that either but it sounded better than cup of tea here.
More than things I want to build habits for, I’m more eager to discover the habits I don’t know that I have. Could I have an AI Navi to fly around, logging everything I do and giving me reports?
Maybe I’d learn that I don’t drink enough water or discover some obscure correlation like that I’m 25% more likely to eat fast food if I’m wearing shorts.
Perhaps better to use Lakitu in this instance.
Could it spot and correct common errors I make in cooking, grammar while speaking, my increased likelihood to buy a shirt at a coffee shop if I’m over caffeinated and underfed?
These things might not even matter or improve quality of life, money savings, health or anything like that — but if people love shitty quizzes that tell them what type of cat they are based on their favorite color, breakfast food, and ideal reading nook, then they’d have to love something like this.
A selection of albums for the week, take your pick, lmk your favorite.