Quitin’: Or, How I Learned To Stop This blog post is about not doing various thing any more. Unlike most of my blog posts, it's not about some useful or general concept from computing or philosophy; it's more of a classic blog-style blog post about my opinions and experiences. It also is a companion piece (/ probably will be included in) a baffling self-help book I'm writing for people who are disturbingly similar to me. As a wise man, or group of men, once said, there are more things worth doing in this life than there is time to do things. I will now discuss various components of this. Keeping in mind always the idea, introduced in my How To Have Hair post, that: I have crippling and arbitrary weaknesses, but I have learned to overcome them using the power of philosophy. So, ability to do activities being limited, you're going to have to pick. Even though I often enjoy playing video games (although, also: oddly, sometimes I do not, but do it anyway. Life's funny that way) I think I will enjoy other things better, so do those instead. Of course, sometimes you don't get to pick. For instance, due to my strange, possibly-cursed, sleep schedule, I'm writing this at 5AM, which really winnows down my options for what I could do right now. I mean, I have plenty of options yet, but many of them are gone now — especially the options vis-a-vis hanging out with other people, which are often the most valuable options of all. In fact, one of the primary drivers beyond my most recent decisions to quit things is that I'd like to be freer during the days to go see more people all the time, and go to more parties and so forth. This, in turn, is to keep me from feeling like death lol. Similarly, I listen to a lot more audio content (podcasts, audiobooks) than I otherwise would, because I take long constitutionals and can't really do much else on them. (Luckily, this includes, like, every book ever written, so I'm never lacking in options of at least some interest.) Now, I say quiting, and I'm about to tell you the things I quit. But it's important to know that when I say "quiting", I'm not usually talking about committing to never doing anything of the sort again (although sometimes I do also do that kind of quiting). But mostly I'm talking about dramatic reduction. When I say "I don't X anymore" I usually mean "I used to do X more, and now I do it much less." Also, when I say quiting, I don't necessarily mean for all time. There's the obvious case of quiting something for a time. There is also the case of quiting something indefinitely. In fact, a lot of the things I'm quiting I'm quiting only for a little while, or I guess until a day when I really feel like doing them. Just go by feelin', have a nice time. Especially because some of them heal me in some hard-to-articulate way. Watching a good movie or playing a good videogame returns me to normal somehow. A different way for each of them, I think. I think they somehow give me perspective on life. "Oh, yeah, right." my animal brain goes, remembering what talking to people and doing things and having good emotions is like, after mysteriously not doing that for a bit. It's nice. I can't explain it much better than that. Why doesn't spellcheck like the word "quiting"? Oh, it's normally spelled with two "t"s? I guess to make sure you don't think someone is quite-ing?? Well, whatever. I am the language user; I make the rules; I will spell it how I like. I've sort of forgotten where I was going with this this blog post, so here's a random list of things I've 'quit', followed by random considerations on the topics: - watching movies. I've seen like 2,000 movies. News flash: they're good. I don't really need to see another one. Except for like 70 that are on my list to check out for a specific reason, and I wasn't watching those anyway. - reading books. Ditto. - Another sort-of-related thought on books: It's just a little bit weird that—— I read all sorts of books; I enjoy all sorts of books; I value all sorts of books... but the only books I've actually ever moved my schedule around to continue reading are Terry Pratchett books. DiscWorld novel I've checked out from the library? I'm canceling plans in order to dump more hours into that puppy. I don't know why. I guess he was just really good at writing. And my nature is just in this particular way. - listening to podcasts. There's a time when I actively sought out new podcasts to listen to. Oho! How naive! - doing many people's bad (?) ideas for tourist activities, because I've learned they mean nothing to me. I'm here to visit you, my friend. I could go see a little park anywhere, idgi. You are the activity. - software (and similar-type other) projects. I hit Peak Project (the concept behind Peak Project is that I stopped starting new projects, and just finish old ones now. Not using your phone is great for this) in 2024. (I remember the project it was, too. I'm still doing it lol.) (Since I wrote that last sentence I've forgotten what project it is. But there's like a 2% chance I've finished it, based on my declining project inventory; maybe more since it was probably one I started more recently, and thus maybe finished more recently.) - Whenever I think about making a video game, I think "well, there are enough of those already". As evidenced by the fact that my backlog of them is so big. So adding more might be a waste of time! I probably would do it, though, if it were easier (I have all the necessary skills, it's just a lot of elbow grease). - things (like links, etc) people send me; ignore them (this was actually too hard for me to do until I stopped using my phone so I stopped seeing so many links ambiently.) - looking at things on the internet. - blog posts, perhaps? 😳. See this blog for further posts on the matter. (Uh but then after those I'm going to quit maybe idk) Random considerations on the topic, presented in the form of paragraphs and fragments: 1. Debussy-maxing My friends (actually one particular friend of mine, Nick) came up with a concept known as Debussy-maxing (apparently on the theory that Debussy makes the best music, or something). You have to be listening to the best music while eating the best food on tiny plates. As a man with a small appetite this appeals to me. I also like good things (what a shock!). So, this is often a pretty good idea. Sometimes it's the right time to maxmax, though, and get a lot of something, instead of tiny plates. Not often, though. 2. Simply using reason So how to decide what to do? Well, simply use reason. This is also know as "the Descartes plan", for reasons I will elaborate elsewhere. You can remember the procedure through this simply mnemonic: REASON • Really • Every time • All the time • Simply • O — I forget what this one is. Oh, wait, it's "Obviously". How ironic. • Nous (greek word for mind) 3. Going Online There is a thing sometimes called "touching computer" people do (there are other things also called "touching computer"). Which is like using the internet to pointlessly expose yourself to information. This is so common my friends have a special term for it, to critique it: "GOON", short for "GOing ONline". (Pronounced like "呉音", probably, not like the gangster guys.) Gooning like this can be used for literally using the internet, like doomscrolling like this, or like pointlessly watching TV or something. Even looking at beautiful paintings could be gooning, in some people's definitions of it. I don't really goon. Except when I'm weak and crippled, like by a disease or sleepiness. Maybe the rest of you guys should look into that? Like maybe there's something wrong with all of you, that causes you to do the low-effort, waste-time option. It's probably to do with not hanging out with friends constantly, as humans are evolved to to, idk. 4. Goodbye I'm energized to finish this blog post so I can quit another thing (writing this blog post). Maybe it could have been a more-comprehensive blog post but hey: I'm very sleepy. That's all for now. And, remember: you are the master of your own destiny!