Pragmatism

Personally, I prefer whining but it wasn’t getting me anywhere and then I read this quote in a caption under a picture of Sir Karl Popper ["inventor of sex enhancer" joke goes here] where he says something about life being a process of problem-solving and that reminded me of something else he said, about how we learn through our mistakes and all that tipped me over the edge into the abyss of Trying Something New:


Rephrase whine as concrete problem –> identify possible solution –> implement possible solution –> record level of success, failure –> record whether this solves the whine, or whether further problems or better solutions must be solved/implemented.

    Are you actually interested in this, or just bored? I notice traffic is down, fewer kids reading Metamorphosism at school, I guess, or more office clerks on vacation…

For example: Problem: I’m boring in person. Possible solution: stop talking about myself all the time. Result: too hard to implement, try something else, like a facial tattoo.

Or: Dissatisfaction with appearance. Possible solution: Lose weight. Which leads to another problem: How to lose weight. Possible solution: eat less and exercise more. Result: down four kilos so far, yay.

Or: Lousy conversationalist. Possible solution: incite convesation partners to talk about themselves. Result: works like a charm so far.

8 responses to “Pragmatism

  1. the prophetic one

    draw the bugs, and they will come.

  2. TH

    It’s summer. (Well, at least according to the calendar) All life comes to a standstill in summer, so why not blogs too?

    It’ll be busy again come September.

  3. mig

    I’ve been blogging longer than Kottke, man. I’ve transcended worrying about statistics. I wasn’t whining about that, just making an observation.

    (upon reading that, it sounds testier than I mean to sound. You’re right, it is summer, and there are better things to do. I haven’t been blogging much, or reading as many as often, either.

  4. mig

    Thanks, Novala. Our cats leave the hedgehogs (who appear to be preparing to move out of their houses into the big, wide world soon, appearing less and less for their 15:00 feedings) alone too. And run from our tortoise when it makes aggressive moves in their direction.

  5. It seems like your site isn’t pinging the usual weblog-ping-things. I have my notification hooha set at 12hrs, just so I can see that you updated at noon there even though that was 5am here, and day after day there is no pinging from you. So it’s a nice surprise when I come look in anyway.

  6. mig

    It pings them, except sometimes the bot at the door turns the pings down because wrong shoes or something. Skinny leather ties? Please, dude.

  7. well, i just started reading you again this summer after a blog-hiatus. so that makes up for one office clerk on vacation.